5-Year-Old Heart Transplant Patient Headed Home After Kidnapping
UPDATED 04/26/12 1:40 p.m.
OAK LAWN, Ill. (CBS) -- The ordeal is almost over for a 5-year-old Missouri boy who needs a heart transplant.
Porter Stone is headed home to St. Joseph, Mo., with his mother, Tiffany Stone, after being kidnapped and driven all the way to the southwest suburbs of Chicago from a hospital in St. Louis.
Meanwhile, Porter's father, grandmother and aunt have waived extradition and will be headed back to St. Louis.
Police say Jeffrey Stone, 33; along with Porter's paternal aunt, Heather Minton, 37; and his paternal grandmother, Rhonda Maria Matthews, 59, abducted him in St. Louis on Tuesday. Faced with kidnapping and child endangerment charges, the trio appeared in court on Thursday and waived extradition. They will be returned to St. Louis for further proceedings.
Porter's mother has sole custody of the boy, but is in the middle of a bitter divorce from her estranged husband.
WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports, the defendants were assigned an assistant public defender, who said they all wish to go back to St. Louis to face charges.
"Now they are held no bond in the Cook County Jail, until the authorities from Missouri come and pick them up," said Cook County Sheriff's Investigator Robert Zivalich.
Earlier Thursday morning, CBS 2's Susanna Song caught up with Tiffany Stone as they left for O'Hare International Airport for the flight home.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports
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Around 8 a.m., Tiffany Stone ignored questions from reporters assembled outside the Ronald McDonald House across from the hospital. She carried Porter, wrapped in a blanket, to a waiting taxi to go to O'Hare International Airport and head home.
Upon arriving at the airport, Porter walked alongside his mother, clinging onto the blanket as he snuggled against her.
Tiffany Stone reunited with Porter late Wednesday night, after arriving in Chicago later than expected. They spent the night near Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where Porter was taken after he was found with his father and other relatives in Alsip.
On Wednesday night, Porter and his mother slept next to each other – something Tiffany Stone says at one point, she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to do again.
She addressed reporters upon arriving in Chicago Wednesday night.
"He told me he wants to go shopping, so he's ready for me to come pick him up," Tiffany Stone said upon arriving at O'Hare International Airport from her home near Kansas City Wednesday evening.
She was excited to be reunited with Porter, who, according to police, was taken from St. Louis Children's Hospital Tuesday by his father, Jeffrey Stone.
Porter was kidnapped with only about a day's worth of medication left in a portable IV on him. He suffers from cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that prevents the heart from pumping blood correct.
He is next on the list for a heart transplant.
"Fear – real, like, fear – because I knew he didn't have his meds, and I didn't know when I was going to see him again."
Tiffany Stone said mother said about 10 minutes after the abduction, Jeffrey Stone called and texted her saying he had their son.
Investigators said Jeffrey Stone called Tiffany repeatedly while on the run, calling her names and refusing to let her speak to her son.
"I wasn't afraid for my life, but it was just very derogatory, and, you know, it was just very obvious," she said. "It made his motivation perfectly clear."
Police used cell phone GPS to track Jeffrey Stone and his mother and sister down at the Baymont Inn motel, at 12801 S. Cicero Ave. in Alsip. They broke down the door and found Porter inside a room with the group.
Porter's uncle on his mother's side, back in their hometown of St. Joseph, Mo., says he is determined to protect his nephew.
"I hope he goes away for a long time," said Ian Fife. "He is irresponsible and psychotic in my opinion, and I think he deserves what he gets."
Porter was taken to Advocate Christ early Wednesday, and all day, Porter waited for his mom to arrive in Chicago.
"He's doing great. He's great. They said he's great. He's just been playing Wii; hanging out, so he's just kind of waiting," Tiffany Stone said at the airport.
Tiffany Stone says she plans to take porter back to Kansas City, where the family lives.
They will wait at home until they get a call from the hospital in St. Louis saying there is a heart available for Porter, at which point he will go back to St. Louis for the transplant.
