Police charged a 16-year-old girl with kidnapping Monday night, nearly nine hours after authorities said she abducted a newborn boy from his mother's Macon hospital room.
Timillion Keshon Trawick, who was born Thursday, was taken from his mother's third-floor room at The Medical Center of Central Georgia about noon and returned sometime after 5 p.m., Macon police spokeswoman Sgt. Melanie Hofmann said.
The baby was stolen from his mother by a female dressed in black pants and a white shirt who was posing as a hospital employee, Hofmann said. The teenager told the baby's mother that there was a problem with the hospital's pictures of Timillion. The teen took the child under the pretense that she would get the pictures retaken, police said.
Moments later, an alarm alerted the Medical Center's nursing staff that a baby had been taken from the third floor. A second alarm alerted staff that the baby was taken out of the building, Hofmann said.
Police are not identifying the teen charged in the case and are still looking for a slender black female seen driving Timillion and the 16-year-old away from the hospital in a Toyota Camry, Hofmann said. Hospital security cameras were unable to get a clear view of the car's license plate, police Lt. Carl Fletcher said.
Hofmann said Timillion, who weighed just 4 pounds 6 ounces, was in good condition Monday night. The boy was found after a tip to law enforcement sent police to a house on Hawthorne Street, several blocks from the hospital. The 16-year-old and the infant were inside the home, she said.
A spokeswoman for the hospital said the child's parents were "very upset, and now they're rejoicing" since the baby's safe return. The parents were not available for comment.
When shown a picture of the teen accused of taking her son, Timillion's mother said she didn't know her, Fletcher said.
When Timillion's abduction was discovered, an Amber Alert was issued and several agencies began pursuing leads in the case.
"I think without the collaborative efforts between our department, the (Bibb County) sheriff's department, the Medical Center police, FBI, GBI and the assistance of the other agencies we probably would not have found the child as quickly," Hofmann said.
Midafternoon Monday, police released a picture of a female they believed to be the one who took Timillion, Hofmann said. Initial reports described her as being in her 30s, but the woman in the picture was the teen whom police charged Monday night, Hofmann said. The suspect looks older than her age, Hofmann said.
After the incident, Andrew Galloway, senior vice president for the Medical Center, said the hospital is reviewing its security.
"Sometimes bad things happen when everything else is working properly," Galloway said.
This is the first infant abduction that Galloway knows of at the hospital, he said.
"It's a public hospital. It's open to the public," he said. "We have people in and out all the time, visitors, etc. And no, it's not uncommon for people to be in the hospital, but to be able to abduct (a baby), obviously something went wrong."
