Yaounde baby theft: Suspect re-enacts incident, pleads guilty.

The 23-year-old Nyintang Dorothée Léaticia, made the confession in Yaounde on Wednesday. This was while re-enacting how she executed the crime at the health facility, on August 3, 2024. 

She re-enacted the scene under the watchful eyes of the Commissioner of Central Police Station N°. 4 in Yaounde, Mindjom Christine Irène, and the State Counsel of Mfoundi High Court, Ndi Ndi Luc. 

Speaking during the redemonstration, the suspect said she carried out the crime after successfully manipulating the victim, Mafouo Kueffou Justenne, and a patient that the victim was sharing a ward with at the hospital.

According to the suspect, after her arrival at the hospital at about 1p.m. on August 3, she pretended to want to charge her phone. 

The suspect later misled the mother of the newborn into believing that she was a friend to a patient with whom the victim was sharing the ward. 

The suspect also deceived the patient into believing that she was a sister to the woman who had just put to bed; thereby creating an atmosphere of trust between the two ladies and herself. 

Per the suspect, she furthered her plans after her victim left her and the newborn baby in the same room and went out to eat in a separate room as requested by the hospital medics. 

The suspect said she faked a call from the victim and told the patient with whom the baby’s mother was sharing the ward that the victim had asked her to help bring the baby to where she was. 

The suspect said she later left with the child and took the lift out of the maternity ward on the fourth floor and went down to the bottom of the stairwell from where she managed to leave through the main gate in the absence of a security guard as confirmed by the police. 

Move from hospital to Nkoabang still in Yaounde

Per the suspect, after leaving the hospital, she later took a taxi to Carrefour Nkoabang, located in the Mefou and Afamba Division of the Centre Region. 

Upon arriving there, she said she went with the stolen baby to a health centre and presented herself as the child’s real mother, starting the process for the establishment of birth documents, notably certifying that she had gone into labour and put to birth normally. 

The certification process, per a confirmation from the police, was expected to culminate in the suspect establishing civil status documents placing her as the mother of the child and her boyfriend, one of the suspects, Kamsu Tchiendjo Emmanuel, as the father. 

How police laid hands on suspect

Speaking to the press after Wednesday’s re-enactment, coordinated by the State Counsel, Ndi Ndi Luc, who also questioned the staff and management of the Baptist Hospital, the Police Commissioner Mindjom Christine Irène said they laid hands on the suspect after collaborating with informants upon getting permission for a full investigation to be carried out on the case.

She said when they got information about the discovery of a similar baby at the health centre in Nkoabang, police officers went to the facility and tricked the suspects into believing that they were medics, who had come in with a vaccine which the child needed.

“…that is how the suspect and her partner came out with the baby, which happened to be the same baby whose photos had been shared on social media networks and other platforms,” Commissioner Mindjom recounted. 

Attempts to mislead police 

Per Commissioner Mindjom, the victim and her partner in collaboration with other individuals, tried on multiple occasions to convince the police that the newborn in their possession indeed belonged to them.

“…she made us to believe that she put to birth one week before that incident and the child had died and had been buried in a place called Fokou,” the commissioner disclosed, adding that “upon getting there, we didn’t find anything to prove that a child had been buried like she claimed”. 

Commissioner Mindjom said the police also noticed foul play after the health centre where the suspect was caught with the baby tried to derail them into believing that the suspect had actually put to birth at the facility.

“Some neighbours of the woman also falsely claimed that she had undergone prenatal follow ups which the police upon investigations, noticed that there were all false,” she disclosed. 

Presumed partner’s suspicious contrary claims 

According to the Commissioner, another disturbing attempt at misleading the police came from the presumed partner of the suspect, Kamsu Tchiendjo Emmanuel. 

Per the police, the male partner claimed he knew nothing about the theft, despite accepting that his fiancée had told him that she was pregnant.

Commissioner Mindjom said the failure of Commissioner Mindjom to have asked his partner about the progress of the pregnancy as well as not questioning the sex of the baby, whereas they were expecting a boy, gave clues to the lies they were telling. 

According to Commissioner Mindjom, the police has full interest in the case and will continue with investigations to get to the bottom of the matter, notably establishing if the suspect is part of a network specialised in child theft and getting to know those she is working with.

Enter State Counsel 

The State Counsel of Mfoundi High Court, Ndi Ndi Luc, questioned the management of the hospital and staff who were on duty on the day of the incident on the reason why the victim was held at the hospital after delivery instead of getting discharged.

He also pushed to know why the victim was put in a separate room instead of a post-partum room, a question which the hospital officials responded to by saying the victim was told to wait in the hospital after the newborn showed signs of complications.

They said the victim was also forced to wait in the patient’s ward due to lack of space in the post-partum room. 

Police laud population’s collaboration

Commissioner Mindjom used the opportunity to hail the fruitful collaboration existing between the police and the population. 

She urged the population to continue trusting the police, encouraging them to not hesitate in calling the toll-free numbers, 1500 or 117, whenever the urgent need arises.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3200 of Friday August 16, 2024