Kidnapped Baby Is Back With Parents

An emotionally weary couple were reunited late Sunday with their 3-month-old son more than 12 hours after he was snatched from the side of his sleeping mother at a Santa Ana homeless shelter, police said.

Martha Alvarado, 43, a Santa Ana transient who has been a suspect in two prior child-abduction cases, was arrested a block from the Santa Ana police station following a tip from a caller who heard about the kidnapping on a TV newscast, police and family said.

“I was so excited when I saw him, I was just filled with joy,” the baby’s father, James Ford II, 35, said as he cradled his son, James Ford III, in a warm blanket at police headquarters. The baby was found unharmed.

Ford said the family’s nightmare began at 6 a.m. when his wife, Stephanie Davis, 30, awoke to find that James was missing from her bed at the Salvation Army’s Hospitality House in Santa Ana. The family had been staying at the shelter for two weeks, and James slept just inches from his mother in a segregated room for women and children.

Davis told police she fed James at about 3 a.m., then returned to sleep. She recalled him coughing late at night but did not “see or feel” anyone coming near her.

After police began searching for James, the shelter’s staff realized that Alvarado, who had stayed at the 55-bed shelter in the past, also was missing, said manager Ross Bogan.

An hour later, at about 7:30 a.m., Alvarado showed up at her older brother’s home, seven blocks from the shelter. Manuel Alvarado said his sister was clutching a baby and yelling nervously while she compulsively snapped her fingers.

When Alvarado’s wife, Ana, accused her sister-in-law of taking someone’s baby, Martha Alvarado became very aggressive, shouting, “Yes, it is my baby!” and fending off their attempts to see if the child was OK, Ana Alvarado said.

“It had a lot of blankets over its face,” said Manuel Alvarado. “I said, ‘How could you let the baby breathe? It’s bundled up like a cocoon.’ ”

Martha Alvarado told him she was going to take an Amtrak train to Los Angeles, Manuel Alvarado said, but he doubted her because she never ventured from Santa Ana.

Manuel Alvarado said that his father advised him to call the police but that he felt bad about doing that to his sister. Instead, he told her to leave. Regretting his decision, he called police 20 minutes later.

“I kick myself. . . . I should’ve known,” he said.

Police said after leaving her brother’s home, Alvarado did buy a train ticket, setting off a massive search of train stations in the area and ultimately Union Station in Los Angeles when the train from Orange County arrived. Neither Alvarado nor the baby were found.

About 11 hours later, a woman called police to say Martha Alvarado had appeared on her doorstep with the baby seeking shelter.

Manuel Alvarado said he believes his sister may have taken the baby because she truly believed it was hers. Martha Alvarado has had a number of children, he said, by at least four men. Her first child, now in his 20s, was raised by their parents. Two of her children were adopted by a niece who lives next door to the parents’ home in Santa Ana, he said. His parents have kept their address secret from his sister out of fear, he said.

“This has been going on for a long time,” he said. “She has a very aggressive attitude.”

His sister’s other children were removed from her care by the state, he said. Manuel Alvarado said he was not sure how many children his sister has had.

Santa Ana Sgt. Raul Luna said Alvarado had been a suspect in prior child abductions in 1985 in Riverside County and again in Santa Ana in 1993.

“Because they took so many kids from her, she thinks these are her kids,” Manuel Alvarado said. “I don’t think she’s bad. . . . But it’s still wrong for her to take the baby. She needs help.”

Alvarado was charged with kidnapping and assault and battery, Luna said. He could not explain the assault charge late Sunday. She was being held at Santa Ana Jail on $50,000 bail.

Late Sunday, Ford, who recently found work as a security guard, and Davis said they would be more vigilant in the future to ensure their son’s safety.

“From now on, he’s going to be sleeping with me under the same blanket,” Davis said. And Ford vowed he’ll be “watching everybody from now.”

“I don’t want any other parents to have to go through what this was, because this was a nightmare,” he said.

The couple had fallen on hard times after they quit their jobs working for a traveling carnival. Ford, who is from Texas, said he and Davis used to build carnival rides.

They had been in Orange County about two months but had been living at the shelter for only two weeks.