RAMY AMADEA GALLEGO - 4 Months - Knightsen (SE of Oakley) CA

KNIGHTSEN -- Authorities are searching for a
4-month-old girl reported missing this morning from a home in the
eastern Contra Costa County town of Knightsen.
The reporting party told the county sheriff's office that the child,
Ramy Amadea Gallego, was last seen at about 10 p.m. Saturday when she
went to sleep in a bassinet at a residence on the 1500 block of Tule Lane.
At about 6 a.m. this morning, the mother checked on the baby
and found her missing, the sheriff's office said.
Deputies responded and searched the home and the surrounding area. A
helicopter and dogs were used, and authorities also sent a telephone
notification to nearby residents.
The girl weighs 14 pounds, has dark hair and blue eyes, and was
wearing a one-piece, zip-up outfit with pink, green and blue pastel colors.
Anyone with any information is asked to call the sheriff's office at (925) 646-2441.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/22/MN3G1JJH8H.DTL#ixzz1N7uHnYiB

CoCo Sheriff's Office Searching For Missing Infant



Posted: 11:59 am PDT May 22, 2011KNIGHTSEN, Calif. -- The
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff kicked off a massive search
Sunday morning for a 4-month-old girl, who reportedly disappeared from
her home in the town of Knightsen.Ramy Amadea Gallego was
reported missing from to the Sheriff's office at about 6:20 a.m.
Sunday. She was reportedly last seen at about 10 p.m. the previous
night, when the baby went to sleep at her home on the 1500 block of Tule
Ln. When Gallego's mother went to check on her at about 6 a.m. the
following morning, the infant was not in her bassinet.Deputy
Sheriffs responded and conducted a search of the residence and
surrounding area. The office also informed neighboring residences via
telephone.As of noon, the search had expanded to include an estimated 75 participants, a K-9 team and air support.It
was unclear whether or not the infant had been abducted, according to
Jimmy Lee, director of public affairs for the sheriff's officeGallego
was described as having dark hair and blue eyes, and weighing 14
pounds. She was last seen wearing a one-piece zip-up that had pink,
green and blue pastel colors.Anyone with information on the missing baby was asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (925) 646-2441.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/27983077/detail.html

I don't like this. Reminds me of Trenton Duckett.

Missing 4-month-old from Knightsen found in SoCal


KNIGHTSEN, Calif. (KGO) -- Contra Costa County investigators are trying to unravel a baffling baby mystery. They confirmed Monday morning a four-month old baby girl who reportedly vanished from her bassinet over the weekend has been found. The baby is now with sheriff's office detectives who traveled to Southern California to pick her up. Three people are being interviewed at this time by detectives.
Ramy Amadea Gallego disappeared from her Knightsen home Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Investigators say that according to the parents, when the mom woke up at 6 a.m. to feed Ramy, the bassinet was empty. Friends and family say the parents searched the house and the baby was nowhere to be found. They say the backdoor was wide open. The parents called authorities at 6:20 a.m. to report the missing baby.
Ramy's parents, Kristin and Rudy Gallego, are not considered suspects. They went to the sheriff's office for questioning on Sunday, which is a standard procedure in cases like this.
"I think somebody came into the house and took the baby out. That's the only thing that it could be," said family relative Heather Phillips. "I mean Kristin and Rudy, they're just not that type of people. People say, 'Why weren't you watching your kid? It was right next to you.' And, he said the same thing. He's like, 'I know. You're probably asking me how did this happen?' He said, 'Somebody came into the house and took the baby.' And, they sleep very soundly, both of them. They're heavy sleepers."

There was a massive foot and aerial search, with more than 100 people taking part in the search effort.
Five other people live in the house, the baby's parents and her three older siblings
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=8145330

KNIGHTSEN
-- The 4-month-old girl who disappeared from her bassinet here Sunday
has been found safe, the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office said
Monday morning. Family members interviewed in El Monte said they
were told by investigators that the baby's paternal grandmother had
taken Ramy Amadea Gallego. The Sheriff's Office has scheduled a news
conference for 2 p.m. to discuss developments in the case."Our
detectives traveled to Southern California and have recovered the baby,
who is safe," sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said Monday morning. "She is
with our detectives."Lee said three people are being interviewed
regarding the disappearance, and said it was too soon to tell whether a
kidnapping had occurred. "That's something we are trying to
determine through the interviews," he said. "We're getting a clearer
picture, but we don't want to put that out just yet."Family
members and others gathered outside the El Monte Police Department
identified the suspect as Ericka Gallego, the mother of Ramy's father,
Rudy. Kristin Gallego, Ramy's mother, praised sheriff's deputies for their quick work finding her child."They just did a wonderful job," she said. "We're so grateful for their quickness."Jaime
Portugal said Ericka Gallego was his roommate in El Monte. She had been
telling people she was pregnant, and had held a baby shower, he said.He said he became suspicious because the baby looked too matureto be 2&1/2 weeks old, which is what Ericka Gallego was telling people."She wasn't all there from the get-go," he said. "She was always a little off her rocker."It's a good feeling to know the baby's going back to her mother."Martin
Jimenez, a contractor and handyman from El Monte, said he also knew
Ericka Gallego and was suspicious that she had given birth. He said he
went to a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Baldwin Park, which said it had
no records of her giving birth there, and that he alerted police. He said he's previously told her she should seek psychological help.Jimenez and Portugal both said that Ericka Gallego had worked as a middle schoolteacher's aide. Kristin Gallego said Ericka Gallego had seen the baby for the first time on Mother's Day. "They asked if I wanted to fully prosecute," she said, "and I said, 'Yeah' and my husband said 'Yeah.'"Julie
Berumen, a neighbor of the family, said the child's grandmother had
been visiting the family from Southern California, but she thought the
woman had returned a week ago. Berumen said her grandchildren
often played with the couple's other three children. "I'm most
definitely happy (Ramy) was found alive. Our family and the
neighborhood's families are overjoyed. "The mother and father got along great, but they didn't get along with his mom," Berumen said.Ramy's
mother said she put her daughter to bed about 10 p.m. Saturday, but
when she checked on her around 6 a.m. the infant had disappeared from
her bassinet, Lee said.The child was reported missing around 6:20 a.m.Capt.
Steve Warne of the Sheriff's Office declined to specify whether a home
alarm system was activated when the child vanished, nor whether she was
in a room by herself.Authorities cordoned off the entrance to
Tule Lane on Sunday, where authorities could be seen coming and going
from the family's beige, single-story home.About 100 law
enforcement officials and volunteers scoured the area on foot and
all-terrain vehicles along with search dogs Sunday evening.Neighbor
Darrell Hartey, who runs a fruit and vegetable stand at his 10-acre
farm across Knightsen Avenue, said that when searchers came to his
house, he wished for the first time that he did not own his land."There are so many places to hide her," he said. "I was so happy to find out the baby was found safe."http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18122196?nclick_check=1

A happy ending! I just love the "Found" section. Well, the grandmother needs help, but the baby is alive.

FAMILY OF KIDNAPPED KNIGHTSEN BABY TRY TO GET BACK TO NORMAL.
May 28, 2011

KNIGHTSEN -- "My mother
better not have anything to do with this," Rudy Gallego told his wife
Kristin after they woke up to find their 4-month-old daughter Ramy
missing from her bassinet placed inches from where they slept.As
the couple called for help and frantically searched their house last
Sunday morning, Ramy's grandmother was finishing a 400-mile taxi ride
south, preparing to introduce the 14-pound, blued-eyed strawberry blonde
baby to friends as her 2 -week-old daughter "Katrina," investigators
say.And as more than 100 sheriff's deputies and volunteers
searched for Ramy in Contra Costa County, 58-year-old Ericka Shirley
Gallego settled into her cluttered southern California bedroom decorated
like a nursery.The grandmother, who friends said had faked a
pregnancy in an apparent attempt to raise the girl, readied a crib,
changing table, diapers and even a wicker basket with pink flowers and
ribbons proclaiming: "It's A Girl!"The baffling ruse would soon
end. One of Ericka's skeptical friends called police and detectives
quickly connected the dots and took an unharmed but exhausted Ramy from
her grandmother after 15 harrowing hours.Charged with kidnapping
and burglary, Ericka sits in a Los Angeles County jail made notorious by
celebrity prisoners like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan with a bail of
$5 million. She is expected to be transported to Contra Costa County
Jail sometime after Memorial Day.Ramy, returned to her mother'sarms
outside the El Monte Police Department on Monday morning, cried herself
to sleep for two days before she bounced back to her calm and happy
self, Kristin said.The incident has left Ericka's son
devastated, her daughter-in-law on edge, and the other grandchildren not
knowing what to think, Kristin said. Between juggling four kids, the
family landscaping business and returning her Knightsen ranch-style
house from crime scene to home, Kristin recalled the frantic events,
including her 32-year-old husband's reaction to news that his own mother
was apparently responsible for the abduction."My husband's jaw
drops and he says, 'She never intended to talk to me ever again,'" said
Kristin, 30. "He said my mom was willing to give up the rest of the
family for this baby.""The mother-in-law from hell"People would laugh dismissively when Kristin would tell them she has a "mother-in-law-from-hell." Who doesn't, they'd say.But Kristin's stories about Ericka are far from the usual in-law complaints.There
was the time after a struggle over who would make dinner that Ericka
hid all the refrigerated perishables in a cupboard to spoil. There's the
story of how a 14-year-old Rudy missed a year in school because Ericka
put him on a plane to Mexico for a "vacation" and said she would meet
him in a few days, then never returned as Rudy stayed with relatives who
spoke a different language until his father finally hunted him down.Rudy
and Kristin mostly cut Ericka out of their lives for three years after
Ericka reacted to news of their Christmas Eve 2001 engagement with a
shocking verbal assault."She weaseled her way back in our lives when I became pregnant with my oldest," Kristin said. "She always wanted grandchildren."Kristin's
two oldest daughters called her "Crazy Grandma Gallego" because she
would hold them tightly and not let go when they begged for release,
Kristin said.Ericka raised her three children in Southern
California and was an elementary school secretary for 25 years. Ericka
told them she was forced into retirement last year because of a fight
with a woman, Kristin said.Court records show that Ericka was
convicted in L.A. County Superior Court of felony welfare fraud in 2003
as part of plea deal in which six counts of perjury were dropped. She
was sentenced to five years probation and 300 hours of community service
and ordered to pay $18,159 in restitution. Because she has failed to
pay back the money, her probation was extended to August.A fraudulent pregnancySince
last fall, Ericka had been telling friends that she was pregnant and
her roommate and ex-boyfriend Martin Jimenez was the father.Since
the grandmother's arrest, Jimenez has been getting sympathy calls from
friends. "I never thought she was going to do such terrible things, you
know," Jimenez said.Ericka threw a baby shower for herself about
two months ago and spent $2,000 on mariachis, Jimenez said. A neighbor
was worried when she heard Ericka was pregnant because she looked thin."I prayed for her and the baby," said Maria, who declined to give her last name.Friends warned Jimenez that Ericka was lying about the pregnancy, saying she was too old to have another child.He met Ericka several years ago when his children attended Madrid Middle School, where she worked.Martin's son Ivan Jimenez said Ericka became difficult after she started claiming to be pregnant."She would get angry at the smallest thing. She threatened people," Ivan said. "Maybe it was because she was trying to pretend."None
of Ericka's adult children knew of the ruse, although her daughter had
heard rumors. The daughter told Kristin that she asked her mother
whether she was pregnant, and her mother adamantly said she was not.Amber Alert for Baby RamyKristin
and Rudy had no inkling of Ericka's scam when she visited Mother's Day
weekend to meet baby Ramy, the same time she told friends she was
hospitalized for the birth.Kristin remembered being surprised how her relationship with her mother-in-law seemed to be improving."I even commented to Rudy, 'I have to say, she's making an effort,'" Krisitin said.She would later hear from the children's nanny that Ericka was asking for security alarms codes.On
May 21, more than a week after Ericka's visit, the Gallego family of
five left the house about 10:30 a.m. for a family bike ride to
6-year-old Teaghan's last Brentwood Pony League baseball game of the
season. They ate some post-game pizza, before going to a family friend's
house for a birthday party.Ramy had been sleeping in her carseat
for hours when the family returned home around 10 p.m. Kristin placed
her in the bassinet and closed the canopy so the baby would not be
disturbed by daybreak. At some point in the middle of the night, Teaghan
and her 5-year-old sister London crawled into mom and dad's king-sized
bed.Kristin woke up first at about 6:15 a.m., saw that Ramy was
gone and was awash in panic. Her first thought was, "Did I take her out
of her car seat?"The car seat was empty in another room, and the
French doors to the backyard ajar. Kristin said she immediately dialed
911, while Rudy called everyone and anyone.He phoned his mother
about 50 times that morning before she answered sometime around 8 a.m.
It was weird at the time, Kristin said, because normally it is Ericka
calling incessantly.Rudy told her that Ramy was missing and
Ericka responded, "No, no, maybe she's with (the nanny)." The
conversation went in circles several times before Rudy hung up on her."She didn't seem concerned about Ramy at all," Kristin said.The
couple was so upset and distracted throughout the day that they never
thought to mention Ericka to investigators, even during an eight-hour
interrogation. Just as Kristin said she planned to alert detectives of
her mother-in-law, a detective entered the room: "We have your mother,
and we think we have your baby."One of the grandmother's friends
wrote on her Facebook wall that Ericka's baby looked too big to be a
newborn, so she called police.Kristin wonders whether Ericka had
been hiding in the neighborhood for a full day before Ramy's
disappearance. Authorities said she took a cab from Knightsen to El
Monte after swiping the child. A child car seat still sits in the
grandmother's room."Ericka was a nice lady ... She just had a
mental meltdown," said the woman, who asked not to be named. "I'm happy
Kristin has baby Ramy back."Kristin wonders whether Ericka had
been hiding in the neighborhood for a full day before Ramy's
disappearance. Authorities said she took a cab from Knightsen to El
Monte after swiping the child. A child car seat still sits in the
grandmother's room.A neighbor returned from a movie about 2 a.m.
May 20 and noticed a yellow cab on rural Knightsen Avenue about a
half-mile from the Gallego house. It is very unusual to see a cab there,
Kristin said.Charging familyOn Wednesday, Rudy and
Kristin received a call from a Ericka's former cellmate, who had just
been released from the Lynwood jail.Ericka, she told them, gave
her their number. The caller tried to convince them to drop the charges.
How could Rudy do this to his own mother, she asked. Ericka had to take
Ramy because her son is a bad father and she wanted to teach him a
lesson, the caller said.Rudy is not one to cut people off, so Kristin said she took the phone from him."My
mom's a saint, my mom is in heaven, and my mom would have never done
something like this. But if she did, I would do this same thing,"
Kristin said about pressing charges. "Rudy is struggling back and forth
... 'She is my mom, but this is unforgivable.'"As they move
forward, Kristin said she will get counseling for her older children.
She thinks it will help their young minds process what has happened.On
Wednesday, 5-year-old London ran into the house holding a bag of
freeze-dried peas that one of many visitors last weekend left in the
yard and said:"Mommy, do you think Grandma Gallego is trying to poison us?"
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18162574?nclick_check=1