The mother of an abducted newborn baby girl has described her ordeal as a moment of death and rebirth. Her daughter Sofia was recovered three hours later following a large-scale police operation.
The newborn baby girl was abducted on Tuesday afternoon from the Sacro Cuore clinic in Cosenza.
“Thousands of you are writing from all over Italy,” the 24-year-old housewife wrote in a Facebook post alongside a picture of Sofia and her six-year-old brother. “The police did an exceptional job. While I had lost all hope, the entire city and region stopped to look for our baby.”
She thanked everyone involved in the search and added, “A mother and father died and were reborn yesterday.”
Police arrested 51-year-old Rosa Vespa, a Cosenza native, and her 43-year-old Senegalese husband, Acqua Moses, in connection with the abduction. Vespa, who had pretended to be pregnant for nine months, claimed on January 8 to have given birth to a boy named Ansel. She reportedly disguised herself as a nurse at the clinic and took Sofia from her mother’s room under the pretext of a paediatric checkup.
Surveillance footage from the clinic helped police identify the suspects. Officers found the couple at their home, celebrating with family and dressing the baby girl in blue. Investigators believe the couple may have fought after Vespa realised she had taken a baby girl instead of a boy.
The baby returned to the Sacro Cuore clinic for her mother to see her. She was then transferred to the local Annunziata hospital for a health check. Doctors confirmed Sofia was in good condition, and her father collected her from the hospital on Wednesday morning.
“It was amazing to hug my daughter again. I’m happy—the baby is fine,” said her 26-year-old father.
