Texas AMBER Alert: Woman arrested for alleged baby kidnapping

Nicole Daguanno, a 30-year-old woman, was arrested Sunday for allegedly kidnapping her 7-month-old son, Richard Ramey, and evading authorities after an AMBER alert was issued in Bexar County, Texas.

The child was rescued unharmed and Daguanno faces several serious crimes, police said.

The context

Daguanno and Ramey were last seen on July 10, when Daguanno fled on foot with her son from Child Protective Services in the 12000 block of Adkins Elmendorf Road in East Bexar County.

On July 12, authorities issued an AMBER alert and missing person report for Ramey. The alert was lifted after the child was found in a San Antonio home, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said in a missing person’s Facebook post.

His mother, Nicole Daguanno, 30, and three other adults were found at the scene. Officials say Ramey “appears to be in good health and is being evaluated by a medical professional as a precautionary measure.”

According to the Houston-based nonprofit Texas Center for the Missing, which supports missing persons and their families, 9,531 cases of missing children were reported in the Houston-Galveston region alone in 2023.

They say that less than one percent of all child abduction cases involve strangers, but these are the most serious cases and the ones most likely to result in physical injury and death.

What we know

Daguanno was taken to the Bexar County Jail and arrested for endangering a child and interfering with the custody of his children, both of which are considered felonies punishable by jail time.

Newsweek has contacted the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office for further information.

Views

“Our missing persons investigators have been working diligently and expeditiously to locate Richard Ramey,” the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on Facebook.

Separately, a 19-year-old woman in Texas was arrested after filing a false report to police on June 30 about the disappearance of her nonexistent child.

In a statement, El Paso police said Stacie Dashay Marie Smith made a 911 call claiming an unnamed suspect may have abducted her child along with a friend’s vehicle. Although the vehicle was recovered, there was no sign of the child.

According to police, an investigation revealed that her child was a fictional character and that Smith had conjured up the toddler to speed up the police search for her friend’s vehicle.

The 19-year-old was charged with false alarm or false report and was taken to an El Paso detention center on $5,000 bail.

According to World Population Review figures, Texas has the second highest number of open missing persons cases in the United States after California.

Newsweek contacted the El Paso police at that time to obtain further information.

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