UPDATE 11/21 at 12:32 p.m.: Authorities say a Texas woman who faked her pregnancy kidnapped a baby whose mother was found shot to death at her Kansas home.
Wichita police said Monday that 34-year-old Yesenia Semas of Dallas is believed to have known the baby's mother for years.
Suspect: Yesenia Semas
The baby's mother, 27-year-old Laura Abarca-Nogueda, was found shot to death at her home Thursday, setting off a search for missing baby Sophia. The baby was six days old when she was reported missing.
Wichita police Lt. Todd Ojile says Sophia was reunited with family members on Saturday.
Semas is being held in Dallas on suspicion of first-degree murder and kidnapping. The case is expected to be presented to the Sedgwick County district attorney's office later Friday for charges and extradition to Kansas.
UPDATE 11/19: Police say Sophia Gonzalez Abarca, the infant who went missing after her mother's shooting death, has been found safe.
Sophia was found in a Dallas, Texas home early Saturday morning. Police say two people were taken into custody.
Police spokeswoman Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the suspects knew the baby's mother, but did not provide details, citing the investigation.
Original Story:
The FBI was assisting in the search Friday for a Kansas newborn a day after her mother was shot to death in her home, police said.
The week-old infant's father returned home from work Thursday and found the body of his live-in, 27-year-old girlfriend, Laura Abarca-Nogueda, police said Friday. Their infant daughter, Sofia Victoria Gonzalez Abarca, was missing, her whereabouts still unclear Friday.
The girl's father was not considered a suspect, police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow said.
Authorities as of midday Friday had not issued an Amber Alert seeking the public's help in finding Sofia because investigators haven't identified a suspect, Woodrow said.
The slain woman's brother, Israel Abarca, declined to discuss the matter Friday, telling The Associated Press by telephone that the family would have no public comment.
Bridget Patton, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Kansas City, Missouri, said that agency has deployed a team specializing in investigating child abductions. She deferred additional questions to Wichita police, saying only that federal agents were "in an assistance capacity to Wichita.
Police sent out an alert Thursday night saying the driver of a purple Cadillac who had been a person of interest in the case had been found, questioned and eliminated as a suspect.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said Friday it has dispatched members of its "Team Adam" — retired law enforcers — to assist in the search for Sofia.
------
