The Search for Elias Monroy: Abducted as a Newborn in 1987, Authorities Still Seek Reunion
The ongoing effort to locate Elias Monroy, taken during a doctor’s visit 36 years ago
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On Monday, February 2, 1987, Maria Pacheco took her newborn son, Elias Monroy Jr., for a routine check-up at the LA-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Elias was only two weeks old and was born happy and healthy, but it had been a difficult delivery for Maria. Maria was still recovering from the Caesarean section and was experiencing a lot of pain, which was making it difficult to walk and get around.
While in the clinic waiting room, Maria was approached by a woman in her thirties, who said she was also a mother. The two chatted for a bit. Maria thought the woman was friendly and honest, so when Elias started to cry, Maria dug through her diaper bag but realized she didn’t bring enough bottles. The woman offered to hold Elias while she went to look for some formula, and Maria accepted.
Maria had only been gone for minutes when she returned; she noticed the woman and her son were gone.
At first, it was thought that the woman had simply gone to her appointment and taken the newborn with her, but no one matching her description was identified as a patient there or had an appointment. Little Elias had been kidnapped.
When detectives started investigating the abduction, detectives in Hesperia, California, reached out with a similar abduction attempt on January 14.
In that case, a woman who had similarities to the description of the LA abductor approached a mother in a post office who was with her four-month-old son. This woman had started chatting with the mother and asked to hold her baby, which the mother declined.
She left the post office and continued running her errands. Later on in the day, she arrived at a Safeway. She parked and was unbuckling her son from the car seat when she noticed the woman from the post office barreling towards her.
The woman was saying, “I want the baby,” and tried to rip the child from his mother’s arms. And it was then that she noticed there was a man with the woman this time. The mother kicked at the…
