Czech and German police searching for kidnapped Romani infant


Trmice, 5.7.2012 18:58, (ROMEA)
Police are searching for a Romani infant kidnapped yesterday in Ústí nad Labem. Even though dozens of people have been involved in the search, including a helicopter with heat-seeking vision, numerous cars have been stopped and the area along the German border has been scoured, Michala Janová, who is just thee weeks old, is still missing. The investigation is continuing; Petra Trypesová, spokesperson for the North Bohemian Police, told the Czech Press Agency that detectives are reviewing CCTV footage of the vehicle involved. The family is offering a reward for the return of their child.
Czech detectives have asked their German colleagues to collaborate on the investigation and suspect the kidnappers might have taken the infant across the border. Trypesová says no new information on the suspects' movements has come to light. "The CCTV footage shows the suspect changing into a flowered shirt during the journey," Trypesová said, adding that it could be presumed that he would continue to change clothing to evade detection. Police also are not ruling out the possibility that his black VW Touran might also be sporting a different license plate than the number 3U1 4474 originally caught on camera.
Trypesová said detectives are re-interrogating witnesses, including the child's mother and her family, and are doing their best to find new information that might push the investigation forward. "Police officers have been unable to interrogate the child's father as his name is not listed on the birth certificate," Trypesová said.
News server iDNES.cz reports that the family is doing its best to find the kidnapped little girl on their own. They reportedly got together 40 cars and drove around the Czech and German side of the border during the night. "We drove around until 4 AM, we got together about 40 cars and went out looking for her. We were in Germany, we drove around all of the nearby towns - Dresden, Pirna, Bad Schandau," Radomír Niedl, the grandfather of the kidnapped girl, told news server iDNES.cz.
The family is convinced that "deviants did this for money". This afternoon Niedl declared the family is willing to pay a ransom to the kidnappers for the return of the child. "He should contact us, I will personally give him the money. He should just say how much he wants and we will get the money together," the child's grandfather told news server iDNES.cz, adding that the family is large and has a lot of savings. "I have not consulted this with the police, it's a family matter," Niedl told the news server.
An unidentified man kidnapped the little girl yesterday afternoon in the Trmice suburb of Ústí nad Labem. "At the intersection of Gorkého and Žižkova streets in Zelený Park an unidentified man spoke to the mother of the little girl," the police spokesperson said. The man then grabbed the child from her pram right in front of the mother, got into a car and drove off in the direction of the German border.
The child was wearing a long-sleeved grey t-shirt with blue stripes, grey sweatpants with a red stripe, and pink fabric booties. Underneath her outer wear she had one a white onesie with a picture of a crocodile on the chest. The little girl has a half-centimeter long birthmark on the left side of her neck above her shoulder. Police describe the kidnapper as a white male between 180 and 190 centimeters tall with short, straight brown hair.
The media has begun speculating as to the possible motivation for the kidnapping. Some media outlets have published the theory that the child was allegedly sold after it was born and that the kidnapping has been faked to cover up the fact. The media is also speculating that the family might be in debt. News server iDNES.cz reports that the family has rejected speculation that they might have problems with anyone. "We all stick together, our whole family. We don't have problems with anyone," a family member told the news server.