Update: Harlow Darby Freeman has been found and is with her parents. Officials said that it's likely she was not kidnapped but rather the car she was in the back seat of rolled away from where she was left and landed in a ditch
Freeman is being examined at a children's hospital in Birmingham where she is thought to be doing well
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PARRISH, ALABAMA: A devastated mother has been making frantic pleas for the safe return of her nine-month-old baby girl, who got abducted when a thief stole her father’s car on Monday, July 10. Investigators launched an extensive search for Harlow Darby Freeman after she was snatched at around 6.50 pm from a residence on Crest Avenue in Parrish, a town of less than 1,000 people about 50 miles north of Tuscaloosa.
Freeman’s desperate family noted that she was last seen wearing a tie-dye onesie and light pink shorts. The baby girl weighs about 20 pounds and has dark hair and blue eyes. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency issued an amber alert for Freeman at 9.40 pm on Monday. The Parrish Police Department now believes the child is in extreme danger. Melinda Hutchison, Harlow's aunt, told reporters that the child was in the car when her father went inside to visit a friend. He told them he was only gone for a minute or so, and that’s when the SUV was stolen, AL.com reported. The vehicle is a white 2009 Lexus RX350 bearing Alabama plate 3880AR8.
Who is Bethany Smith?
Last night, Freeman’s distraught mother, Bethany Smith pleaded to the kidnapper to safely return her baby girl. Not much is known about Smith, except the fact that before her daughter got kidnapped, she was running a baby clothes clean-out sale on her page which consisted of plenty of pics advertising baby clothes and onesies. In her emotional post, the mother stated, "If you’re reading this and you know anything. All I ask is for my baby back. Y’all can keep the car!!!!! Just bring me my baby and no questions asked! Car was stolen from downtown Parrish between 6:30-6:50 pm."
"If you know where my baby is or how I can get to her. I will meet you with no questions asked. Please just give me back my baby. I’m begging you to please bring my baby to me," she stated in a follow-up post. On Tuesday, Smith made another post writing, "You can drop the baby off wherever you want just call me or message me and let me know where she is. No questions asked I swear." The family is offering a $5,000 reward for Harlow’s safe return and any information regarding her whereabouts. Officials have yet not disclosed any information regarding the circumstances of the kidnapping.
Similar incident
“Anyone with information call the Parrish Police Department at 205-686-9991 or 911. We will update as information becomes available,” the Parrish police department said in a statement. Freeman went abducted just a day after a two-year-old boy went missing while on holiday with his grandparents. Emile was last seen on Saturday, July 8, playing in the garden of his grandparents’ home in the central French hamlet of Le Vernet, a two-and-a-half-hour drive west of Lyon. The missing toddler has brown eyes, and blond hair, and is 90cm (almost 3ft) tall. The authorities said he was wearing a yellow top, white shorts with a green pattern, and hiking shoes at the time of his disappearance.
