Search Is On for Kidnapped Baby

ByABC News via logo
September 17, 2006, 7:30 AM

Sept. 17, 2006 — -- As the FBI, the National Guard, and a small army of volunteers joined in the search for a child that was abducted from her mother's home, the infant's grandmother begged her kidnapper for a change of heart.

"Just give her back. My daughter is torn apart," said Raylene Ochsenbine, the grandmother of Abby Woods, the kidnapped child. "The whole family is torn apart. It just hurts."

Police said the one-week-old baby was taken from her mother's home two days ago by a woman who had come to the door, asking to use the phone.

Abby's mother, 21-year-old Stephanie Ochsenbine, told police the stranger pulled a gun on her before stabbing her in the neck and arm. When Ochsenbine regained consciousness, Abby and her attacker were gone.

"[We] want to know where she's at, when are they gonna bring her home, if they're taking care of her," the child's grandmother said.

The suspect is a white female with dark, long hair in her late 20s or 30s and about 200 pounds. During the abduction, she wore a baseball hat with a worn rim, Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke told "Good Morning America Weekend Edition."

The mother underwent surgery at a St. Louis hospital and is expected to survive, but Abby's health has doctors concerned. The baby missed her first post-delivery checkup and is likely no longer breast-feeding.

"That's a big transition going from the womb to being in the outside world," said Dr. Andy Zupan, Abby's pediatrician.