Aunt ‘faked pregnancy’ before kidnapping newborn nephew and deserting him at petrol station

Kristen Rose Smith of Denver has been charged with kidnapping her half-sister’s newborn son from the parents’ home (Picture: AP/Tipton Iowa Sheriff)

A five-day-old baby boy who was snatched from his cot has been found alive and well in a tote bag at a petrol station, as his aunt is arrested on kidnapping charges.
Little Kayden Powell was taken from the room that he shared with his parents Brianna Marshall, 18, and Bruce Powell, 23, in Beloit, Wisconsin in the early hours of Thursday morning.

It was more than 24 hours until police, following a frantic search that spanned three states, found and arrested Kristen Smith, the step-sister of Ms Marshall who was clad with a prosthetic pregnancy belly, baby clothes and a pram.

The baby’s cot was just two feet from his parents’ bed (Picture: AP/Town of Beloit Police Department)

However, the child wasn’t with her.
It is believed that Smith, 31 – when realising that the police were closing in on her – abandoned the newborn at a BP station in West Branch, Iowa – roughly 180 miles from his home.
Smith had been visiting the new parents hours previously, before leaving the house and telling them she was bound for Colorado.
The infant’s mother had called police at 4.30am on Thursday when she awoke to find that her son was not in the room.
It wasn’t until Friday at 5.30am that Smith was arrested – on an unrelated charge – and claimed that she had no information on the baby’s whereabouts. The child was then discovered at 10.15am.
Temperatures had plummeted on Thursday night and were in the single digits when Kayden was found, amazingly, in good health. He was reunited with his parents yesterday.

The petrol station in West Branch, Iowa, where the baby boy was found alive and in excellent health, has been sealed off (Picture: AP/Ryan J. Foley)

According to the Associated Press, police found a number of claims by Smith on social networks and in emails that she was pregnant – a test while in custody proved that she was not.
‘You stole him like you’re stealing something from the grocery store,’ said Mark Bennett, the great uncle of the newborn.
‘Nobody in their right mind should have thought of that.’
Smith faces life in prison if convicted.