Baby Taken From Hospital Found In Yelm
The two had been the object of an Amber Alert issued Thursday night.
Seattle detectives recovered little Riley Rogers when they pulled over a vehicle at about 12:20 a.m. Saturday in Yelm, southeast of Olympia, Seattle police Sgt. Deanna Nollette said.
The baby "appeared to not be in any immediate life-threatening distress" and was being evaluated by medics, she said. He was to be taken to an area hospital, then transported back to Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.
The baby had been scheduled for surgery Thursday to treat what relatives described as a kidney ailment. His mother, Tina Carlsen, hid him in a diaper bag and took him from the hospital about 6 a.m. Thursday, police said.
The baby was in state custody so she did not have authority to remove him, police said.
Carlsen was arrested on a second-degree kidnapping warrant
issued in King County Superior Court, Nollette said, and was to be
booked on $500,000 bond.
A man and a woman who were in the vehicle with the boy and his mother were also detained for questioning. Nollette declined to identify them or characterize their relationship to Carlsen.
The vehicle was pulled over at the intersection of state Highway 507 and Highway 510, near a house detectives had staked out. Nollette declined to say who lived there.
A statewide Amber Alert, which triggers public announcements on local media and also on electronic highway signs, was canceled after the recovery.
A Jeep Wagoneer that Carlsen had been believed to be driving was found abandoned in the Pierce County town of Puyallup, near another house police were watching, Nollette said.
Dr. Richard Molteni, medical director of Children's Hospital, said Friday that the boy "has a very chronic disease" and is medically fragile, but added, "We do not believe that Riley's health condition puts him in imminent danger."
Molteni said "his serious disease has been slowly progressing to a point where now there is a pressing need for more definitive medical care."
After months of debate between Carlsen and Riley's doctors, the state took legal custody of the boy in early June, ensuring that he stayed at Children's for surgery. The doctors insisted that they boy get dialysis and possibly surgery, but Carlsen favored natural alternative treatments.
Carlsen had unrestricted access to visit Riley at the hospital, so she and Riley's father parents spent a great deal of time with him, and even slept there Wednesday night.
At the same time, Children's Hospital officials said they kept a much closer eye on Riley.
"We knew we had a responsibility not to allow Mom to take him home out of the hospital," said Molteni. "And we also knew that we had increased our surveillance dramatically."
Hospital staff had checked on Riley at 5:30 a.m., but at 6 a.m., the mother left the room and told the staff that she was going for coffee.
Molteni says the hospital now believes she made up the bed to look like he was still there, then hid Riley in a small diaper bag that she typically had with her on her morning walks.
When Riley was reported missing, the hospital conducted a complete search of the premises and then called Seattle police about 40 minutes later.
Children's Hospital officials said that they had asked the state if they should keep a sitter outside Riley's room all the time, and the state said no. "Even if we had a sitter outside the room, they would have also been fooled," Molteni said.
"She's a mother who loves her child very dearly and believes with all her heart that what she's doing is right," Todd Rogers, the boy's father, said of Carlsen. "She honestly believes that if Riley has that surgery, he'll die. I don't share that belief - we've argued about it - but she is his mother and that's her gut instinct."