Sad news, happy ending

News Article on FOXNews.com:

"UNION, Mo. —  Reunited with her kidnapped newborn, a 21-year-old mother still wearing bandages from the brutal abduction said Wednesday it was "indescribable" to have her infant back in her arms.

"The last several days have been draining, just exhausting. But I can handle anything now," the infant's mother, Stephenie Ochsenbine, said on NBC's "Today" show.

Shannon Beck, a woman who had recently miscarried, was arrested Tuesday after her sister-in-law, Dorothy Torrez, contacted authorities.

"She's the hero," Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said of Torrez. "She's the one that made it happen."

Torrez became suspicious when she noticed makeup on the forehead of the newborn baby her sister-in-law was claiming to have delivered a few days earlier.

She rubbed the makeup off and found a strawberry-red birthmark that matched the description provided by investigators who had been combing the Franklin County countryside for a baby abducted on Friday.

Torrez contacted police, and hours later a healthy 11-day-old Abigale Lynn Woods was reunited with her parents and Beck was in custody.

Toelke said charges would likely be filed against Beck on Wednesday morning, though he was not sure what those charges would be.

Ochsenbine told police Friday a woman entered her rural home, attacked her with a knife and stole the baby, who was a week old at the time.

That's the same day that officials believe Beck's own full-term pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.

During the search for Abby, investigators had profiled the abductor as someone who had a child die recently or as someone who could not have children. They also said the abductor had likely told people she was pregnant and needed to steal a child so her lie would not be revealed.

Beck lives just a few miles from Ochsenbine's home near Lonedell, FBI Special Agent Roland Corvington said.

Beck told Torrez on Sunday that she had given birth, the FBI agent said. Visiting Beck the next day, Torrez persuaded her sister-in-law to take the baby to see a doctor, and on Tuesday Torrez went with Beck to St. Louis for that doctor's visit.

That's when she discovered the birthmark and confronted Beck, who gave her the baby. Abby was handed over to authorities at about 5 p.m.

"An outstanding ending, obviously," Toelke said. "You talk about a lead breaking the case, and this was it."

Health care officials said it appears Abby had been well cared for since she was taken.

Dr. Peter McCarthy, an emergency room physician at St. John's Hospital in Washington, Mo., said the baby was expected to be released from the hospital later Tuesday.

"The family is elated and thankful to everyone in the community who prayed for them," McCarthy said Tuesday night. "The baby was hydrated, nourished and in good condition when she arrived at the hospital."

Police had received more than 500 leads in an investigation that drew international attention. Their search intensified Tuesday afternoon as a helicopter circled the area above Abby's home, sometimes as low as 50 feet above the ground. Missouri Route 47, which runs by the home, was blocked off as search dogs scoured the yard and divers searched two nearby ponds.

Ochsenbine told police she did not know the woman who came to her door Friday and entered the house after asking to use the telephone. Ochsenbine's throat was slashed before the baby was taken. She was treated at an area hospital for the wound.

Experts in child abductions say kidnappings by strangers are extremely rare"

I am sure we have all seen and heard this news. But I just wanted to comment on how amazing that this story actually had a happy ending! Things could have been worse for mother and baby. I feel sorry for the kidnapper, I know what it is to miscarry at full term. But it in no way justifies her "need" to steal from another joyful mom. I am waiting to see what punishment she gets.