There was joy in Pittsburgh yesterday as the 3-day-old baby that had been abducted from a Pittsburgh hospital last Thursday was found and a suspect was in police custody—after a relative of the suspect tipped off police that the woman had posted a message on Facebook about having a baby.
The baby is in good health and has been reunited with his mother.
Breona Moore, 19, of East McKeesport was arrested and is facing several charges including concealment whereabouts of a child, criminal trespass, kidnapping a minor, falsely impersonating persons privately employed, interference with custody of children and recklessly endangering another person. The anonymous tip from an unknown family member led police to a building downtown on Fourth Avenue, where they found Moore and the baby.
The baby, Bryce Coleman, was transported by medics back to Magee-Womens Hospital, where he was born, to be medically checked out, authorities said. Family members said they will likely be discharged on Friday.
The suspect was caught on surveillance wearing black scrubs and pink shoes at the Magee-Womens Hospital of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The family was about to be discharged when the abduction occurred, according to hospital spokeswoman Wendy Zellner. Police said the suspect had bought hospital scrubs at a Life Uniform store on Forbes Avenue. According to the sales clerk who sold Moore the scrubs, she said she had a brief conversation with the woman.
“She said she needed a black scrub top because she was starting to train. I asked her what hospital and she said Magee,” Autumn Bullion said.
Moore shouted out, “Guess what mom? It’s all your fault” as she was being taken out of the squad car and brought into police headquarters.
She was captured on film by the CNN affiliate WPXI yelling, “I’m telling you, it wasn’t just me!”
Then she said, “It’s a lot when you lose a child.”
“We’d like to thank the police, the FBI and our staff for their great and rapid work to bring this incident to a successful conclusion,” hospital President Leslie Davis said in a statement. “We will be reviewing this event to see what improvements could be made in our security procedures.”
On discovering the baby’s disappearance, hospital employees immediately notified police and implemented security procedures, according to Zellner.
