Two Indianapolis Police Department officers, who had spent the day searching for a missing 5-month-old baby, went to a Papa John's pizzeria to eat and "bleed off some pressure" after being disappointed at not being able to locate the man. minor.
Hours earlier, a woman had been arrested for kidnapping her baby and her twin;
the other boy, Kyair Thomass, was rescued, but his brother Kason Thomass was not found.
The babies were inside a stolen black Honda Accord car in Columbus, Ohio, next to a restaurant on the night of December 19;
her mother had parked the vehicle to pick up an order that she was going to deliver at home, and she left it running with the minors inside her.
An Amber Alert was issued Tuesday, and Kyair Thomass was found shortly thereafter at Dayton International Airport in Ohio about 70 miles west of Columbus.
On Thursday, a 24-year-old girl, Nalah Jackson, was arrested in Indianapolis (110 miles west of the aforementioned airport), accused of the theft of the vehicle and the kidnapping of the two minors.
According to police, she did not appear to be related to or know the children or her mother.
The other minor was not found, however.
The FBI offered a $10,000 reward for tips leading to their discovery.
On Thursday, two police officers stopped at a pizzeria to rest: "It was time to decompress, we were disappointed that we couldn't find it," Sergeant Shawn Anderson explained to CNN news. "And then God opened up the heavens for us and he almost took it and put it right in our hands," added the policeman.
Kason Thomass.Indianapolis Police Department
In the parking lot in front of the Papa John's restaurant where they were, officers identified Jackson's stolen 2010 Honda Accord.
Baby Kason Thomass was in the vehicle, according to deputies.
"When we found him, he was cold but he was awake, he was breathing, he was moving a little bit," Anderson told CNN.
The Indianapolis Police Department posted a video and photo of Anderson holding the baby on its social media profiles.
"Holding it was one of the best feelings I've ever had in my career," she said.
Kason's family said he was doing as well as to be expected under the circumstances, the station reported.
LaFonda Thomass, the babies' grandmother, told local station WBNS-TV it was "a miracle."
"This is going to be the best Christmas," she added, "excited."
Jackson, who is charged with two counts of kidnapping, was taken into custody after people who had heard about the missing children saw her in Indianapolis, according to Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant, who said she was a homeless woman.
Jackson will be extradited from Indiana to Ohio to stand trial.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office charged her in addition to bodily harm, court records show.
