Woman Rewarded for Fingering Kidnaper

A Delano woman received a $5,000 reward here Thursday for tipping police to a kidnaper who snatched a baby girl from South Coast Plaza earlier this year.

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Maria Ferrer, a 34-year-old mother of eight, said she saw a photo of Stefanny Zamora on a Spanish television show modeled after “America’s Most Wanted” and called police, who arrested Maria Martinez, 36, of Delano. Martinez later pleaded guilty to the kidnaping and is serving a prison sentence of 8 1/2 years, police said.

Stefanny was returned unharmed to her parents, Beatriz and Mario Zamora.

The 10-month-old girl vanished April 22 from a Sears Roebuck & Co. at South Coast Plaza, where an aunt and a friend had taken the infant to be photographed. Sears later offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the culprit.

A few days later, Ferrer said, she saw Stefanny’s photo on television as Martinez and the missing baby were visiting her home. Martinez was a friend of a relative of Ferrer.

Martinez “saw the baby’s picture and immediately stood up,” Ferrer said through an interpreter. “She wrapped the baby from head to toe with a blanket and left. She said she forgot her purse and had to go get it.”

Ferrer said she waited a day to call police because she wanted to watch a rerun of the segment to make sure that the missing baby was the same one Martinez brought home after a 10-day disappearance.

Delano Police Investigator Raul Alvizo, who worked on the case, said Martinez had told friends and relatives that she went to Los Angeles to pick up her baby, who had been delivered months ago, from the hospital. Martinez told Ferrer that her baby had to stay in the hospital because she had been born ill.

“She even wanted to know where she could get a birth certificate,” Ferrer said. “I told her the hospital should have given her one. At that point, she said something like she had a copy but she wanted an original. I was suspicious.”

Ferrer said she didn’t know there was a reward at the time she called police but was “very happy” when she found out about the $5,000 check a few days ago.

The woman said she plans to cash the check as soon as she gets the chance and go buy a refrigerator.

“It’s a Sears,” Ferrer said.