A California woman is behind bars in Arizona after she allegedly kidnapped a 2-year-old girl she believed was her “long lost child.”
Marina Noriega, 23, has been charged with custodial interference in the case that prompted an Amber Alert over the weekend, KTVK reported.
Police were called to a home in Avondale, where the toddler’s parents said a woman they knew only as “Marina” had kidnapped their daughter.
Noriega reportedly told the family that she had been dropped off in Arizona after arriving from California and had nowhere to stay because her father and boyfriend were in prison. An affidavit says that relatives brought her to the families home because she had no place to stay, Law&Crime reported, and the family agreed to let her spend the night.
When the parents went to bed, they said, Noriega was watching television, KTVK said. One of their other children crying woke them up before sunrise, and they found both the toddler and Noriega gone.
They said they searched the neighborhood before calling 911. Police also searched and later issued an Amber alert. Later in the morning, they got tips that Noriega had been seen in Maricopa. One tipster reported driving Noriega and the child from Avondale to Maricopa, where Noriega said she planned to take a train to California.
But Noriega was not on any passenger manifest for a train leaving from Maricopa, and they didn’t see her in the area of the train station.
Police say she and the toddler slept on the street Saturday night and were spotted at a QuikTrip store the next morning in Phoenix.
Kevin Place, working with a moving crew, was one of those who saw her. He said he heard the security guard talking with police and ran back out to his moving truck, where he and his co-workers devised a plan to keep her there. They parked their 30-foot truck to block the vehicle Noriega was in, and moments later, Phoenix police arrived, rescued the toddler, and took Noriega into custody.
Court documents say the girl told her parents when she was returned to them that she was scared and “wanted her mommy and daddy” but was ok.
When she was interviewed by police, Noriega claimed to be the girl’s biological mother. She said the girl was abducted from the hospital in Sacramento where she was born. She said she had come to Arizona to find her own family but “coincidentally” found her own “long-lost” daughter.
But the dates Noriega gave for her supposed daughter’s birth didn’t match the girl se kidnapped, and eventually she admitted the child wasn’t hers. She offered to speak to the family and “apologize for taking their daughter.”
She’s being held on a $250,000 bond. It’s not clear if any other charges are pending.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Marina Noriega/Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office]