Queens Mother Arrested After Allegedly Snatching Her Baby From Foster Care
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Queens woman accused of snatching her baby from the child's foster mother is set to face a judge Thursday morning.
Police say Leila Rajnarie was arrested and charged with kidnapping, custodial interference and endangering the welfare of a child.
The 40-year-old mother was at the center of a statewide AMBER Alert Wednesday after she and her 8-month-old baby girl, Nevita Jagdeo, disappeared from the Queens General Hospital Pediatric Center.
Rajnarie does not have custody of her daughter and was at the hospital with the girl's foster mother for the baby's routine checkup.
Police say when the foster mother and doctor were in another room, Rajnarie grabbed the baby and ran.
"I just saw a mother was holding a baby, she was running," one witness described.
Neighbors say Rajnarie appeared to be a good mother, but say it was clear she had fallen on tough times, frequently asking for money and telling people she was fighting the child's father for custody.
"Maybe she's depressed. Sometime's when people are depressed, they don't know what they doing," said neighbor Nery Paradis.
After an intense, day-long search, police spotted Rajnarie and the baby in the back of a livery cab just a few miles from her Woodhaven home.
She was arrested and the baby was taken to a hospital to be checked out.
The investigation is ongoing.
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