Missing toddler found unharmed

CHICAGO -- A nationwide search for a toddler kidnapped on Christmas Eve ended on Thursday when the child was found unharmed in West Virginia.

Sixteen-month-old Jasmine Anderson was found at a home in the town of Williamson, said Thomas J. Kneir, special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office.

The girl was being examined at a West Virginia hospital but appeared to be healthy, Kneir said.

Police arrested Shelia Annalee Matthews, 33, who has been charged with one count of federal kidnapping. She was taken into custody Thursday afternoon on a warrant issued in Chicago and was being held in the South Central Regional Jail in Charleston, W. Va.

Tip leads to arrest

A tip from a relative of Matthews' boyfriend led to the arrest.

"We're really grateful to everyone who helped," said the child's mother, Marcella Anderson, fighting back tears. "Especially the family members who were brave enough to come forward and had really good hearts, and God bless everyone."

According to police, Matthews had told her boyfriend she had a baby while he was in a California prison, and when the man was released, she told him her mother was caring for the baby in Chicago.

"When she went to the Greyhound station that night, she was looking to abduct a baby," said Philip Cline, chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department. "And unfortunately Marcella was there with Jasmine."

Anderson said she and her two daughters were waiting for a bus to Milwaukee on Monday when a woman approached the family. The woman offered to give them a ride home to Milwaukee.

The woman also suggested that she hold Jasmine while Anderson take her other daughter with her to the ticket counter. Anderson was waiting in line to return the tickets when the woman disappeared with the toddler, Anderson said.

At a news conference at Chicago police headquarters, Anderson said she was relieved and grateful Jasmine was found. She looked forward to going home to Milwaukee and celebrating Christmas.

Asked what she learned from the ordeal, Anderson replied, "No matter what, you have to try to deal with everything on your own."

Massive search

The abduction set off a massive search that involved some 100 Chicago police officers. The case received national attention, and the department received tips from as far away as the West Coast.

On Thursday, Cline said that attention "helped crack this case."

According to police, Matthews and her boyfriend took the toddler to the house of one of his relatives in the Chicago suburb of Broadview on Christmas Day.

Matthews "tried to pretend that the baby was her own," Cline said, dressing the girl in a Christmas dress and even posing with her in a photo later obtained by police.

Early Wednesday morning, the couple traveled with Jasmine to West Virginia. Their hosts, meanwhile, spotted a photograph of Jasmine on television and called police on Thursday.

Chicago police officers found Jasmine's jacket at the Broadview home, Cline said.

Matthews is scheduled to appear in U.S. Magistrate Court in Charleston on Friday, according to senior supervisory agent Joe Ciccarelli of the FBI's Charleston, W.Va., office.

Hundreds of thousands of children are reported missing each year, but only 200 to 300 of those cases turn out to be abductions by strangers. There have been five confirmed cases in Chicago involving strangers over the past 15 years.