HOUSTON – Police want you to be on the lookout for the wanted kidnapper behind a carjacking that ended with an 8-month-old baby being dumped in a field.
The story has gone viral making national headlines, with people around the country rooting for the little girl and the capture of the man behind her abduction.
For the first time since the crime, baby Genesis' mom, Lashanna Hailey, spoke to Local 2 about what happened.
"It was the worst moment of my life," she said.
Hailey said she had just dropped a friend off and stopped to get a soda at the Texaco gas station. She decided to leave Genesis in the car because she had fallen asleep and didn't want to wake her. Hailey was in the store for six seconds and said she never took her eyes off the car. That's when she saw a man open the driver's side door and get behind the wheel.
"I ran outside, he threw the car in reverse, I grabbed the door and jumped on the car. I asked him to give me my baby," Hailey said.
The man drove off, and it was seven hours before Hailey knew where her daughter was.
When a jogger found Genesis abandoned and alone in a field, the baby was covered in ant and mosquito bites. She had a dirty diaper and was starving.
"I'm just happy to have my baby back, I love her so much. She's my world," Hailey said.
As for leaving the eight month old alone in the car, Hailey said she had never left the baby alone before and said she will never do it again.
"People are going to judge," she told Local 2. "I don't care, because at the end of the day I have my baby back. All these stories don't end the same. Don't ever leave your baby in the car, not even for one second because that one second could change your whole world, your life, everything."
That baby's mother is keeping her safe out of the spotlight. The picture police want you to see is the sketch of the man who they say ditched her in a field.
The suspect is about 5 foot 9 inches tall, thin, with a high-top haircut slanted to one side and he's the answer to the question who would abandon a baby on the side of the road?
Police say it has not yet been determined if the mother will face any charges.
Anyone with information on this case, or on the identity or whereabouts of the suspect, are urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
