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Police seek help in missing baby case

UNION, Missouri (CNN) — Investigators searching for a newborn girl who was reportedly snatched by a knife-wielding woman asked the public Monday to watch their neighbors for new infants.

Missouri police released a composite sketch of an unidentified female suspect Monday, along …

with a photo of a black fringed scarf that the suspect may have had in her possession at the time of the attack.

The garment was found in a wooded area near the home of the mother, Stephanie Ochsenbine, who told police that her attacker had a dark scarf. (Watch what police are doing to find missing baby — 1:41)

“We’re hoping that somebody who’s seen it before might give us a call,” Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke told reporters at a news conference Monday night.

He urged people to call police if they notice a new or unexpected infant added to a household.

“A lot of times, people that commit these type crimes, it may be because they’ve had a child die recently (and) they’re taking a child to fulfill the vacancy,” Toelke said. (Watch grandparents’ plea for baby’s safe return — 3:14)

“Sometimes it may be that they aren’t able to have children, and they’ll go out and take a child to maybe satisfy their spouse, something along those lines. Sometimes people will actually tell people that they’re pregnant and around the time that they’re due to have the child will go out to steal a child just to show that they weren’t lying.”

Investigators have been searching for 10-day-old Abigale “Abby” Lynn Woods since Friday, when her mother turned up at a neighbor’s house with a cut throat and several stab wounds, saying, “Someone stole my baby.”

Ochsenbine, 21, who lives in Lonedell, Missouri, about 45 miles southwest of St. Louis, told police that a female stranger knocked on her door around midday Friday, asked to use the phone and, once inside, attacked her and took her baby after wounding her in a struggle.

A bloodied knife that may have been used in the attack was found in the woods near her home by National Guard troops brought in to search for the missing child.

Ochsenbine’s year-old son, Connor, was in the home at the time but was not harmed.

Mother ’in pieces’ about infant

The mother was released from the hospital Saturday night. Her mother, Raylene Ochsenbine, said she was “in pieces” over the disappearance of her baby.

“We just really have to have her home,” Raylene Ochsenbine said. “She completes us.”

The suspect is described as a white female, between 30 and 40 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds. Her dark or black hair was pulled under a baseball cap with a worn bill, and she was wearing a gray or brown T-shirt and blue jean shorts. She appeared to have a mustache.

Toelke said Ochsenbine was “with the suspect for a substantial period of time and was able to give us a good description,” although she didn’t see the suspect’s vehicle. The mother told police that she believes she managed to stab the suspect in the leg as they struggled, the sheriff said.

The baby was wearing a pink dress with a flowered collar when she was taken, according to an Amber Alert issued in the case. She weighs about 6 pounds and has a birthmark between her eyes.

Tips from four states

FBI Special Agent Roland Corvington said investigators have received more than 300 calls from people with information on the case, including tips from Texas, Minnesota, Virginia and Oklahoma.

Toelke said “the phones have been ringing off the wall, which is good.”

The baby’s mother and father have been cooperative with investigators, Corvington said. He refused to comment when asked whether the mother’s wounds appeared to be consistent with a knife attack by an intruder.

The mother has not made a public plea for her daughter’s return, which Toelke said was because of her “emotional state.”

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