Woman Arrested In OKC For Kidnapping Baby

An Oklahoma City woman remains in the Oklahoma County jail on a $50,000 bond after she was accused of stealing a 1-week-old baby.

Oklahoma City police arrested Betsy Fernandez, 40, of Oklahoma City, on Tuesday. Police received a report of woman taking an infant from a northwest Oklahoma City home, while the baby’s own family was there at the house.

It happened in the 2200 block of NW 31 Street.

“She’s like a church lady, so I trusted her,” said Monica Juarez, the baby’s mother.

Baby Savina, who was born exactly a week ago, is finally back safe in the arms of her family.

“I'm happy that she's back,” said Juarez, Savina’s mom.

Juarez said for hours she had no idea where Savina was, all because Fernandez, a woman who Juarez said was a friend of one of her aunts, came to Juarez's home to visit.

Juarez said Fernandez came over to see the baby and help out for a couple of hours. Juarez said it was while she was outside hanging up laundry that Fernandez walked out the door with Savina without telling anybody or asking permission.

“I was going crazy, crying,” said Juarez. “We didn't know where to look because she (Fernandez) lives in a shelter, and we didn’t know which one."

Juarez said she and the family searched everywhere for her baby. They searched all over the house, down the street, at the nearby bus stop, everywhere they could think of.

Juarez said she couldn't believe the woman they considered to be a family friend could betray them this way.

Juarez said one of her cousins saw Fernandez looking out the window waiting for her ride, but didn’t realize she left with the baby and got in the car without telling anyone what she was doing or where she was going.

Juarez said she does remember one thing Fernandez told her that should have been a clue.

“Yeah, she was asking me ‘you should let me have her, I will take care of her, like if she was my own,'” said Juarez. “But I thought she was just playing with me! But I guess she really wanted her.”

Hours later, Oklahoma City police tracked down Fernandez and the baby nearly two miles away when Fernandez was picking up her own daughter from school.

A police report states Fernandez told the officers the baby should not be with her mother and claimed the house was a drug house, but police arrested Fernandez for taking the baby.

Turns out, she also had two city warrants out for her arrest for trespassing on school property and illegal tag display.

Juarez is just thankful the officers found her baby and they took Fernandez to jail.

Now, she plans on being even more protective of her precious daughter, and not allowing just anyone to hold her baby or help with her care. All because of this scary kidnapping by someone the family thought they knew.

The baby was checked out by doctors at OU Children’s Hospital but Juarez said she is doing just fine.