Case of newborn snatched from Tenn. home worries advocates who say immigrants can be targeted

Tenn. baby abduction worries immigrant advocates

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tips and evidence were being analyzed that police hope lead to a newborn whose wounded mother said was snatched from their home in a crime that had some worried Thursday about the vulnerability of Nashville’s immigrant communities.

Maria Gurrolla’s baby boy has been missing since Tuesday. She said a heavyset white woman with blonde hair came to her home south of Nashville posing as an immigration agent, attacked her with a kitchen knife, then took Yair Anthony Carillo, who will be a week old on Friday. Her 3-year-old daughter was left in the home unharmed. Gurrolla, who suffered severe stab wounds, was released from the hospital Thursday.

The 30-year-old Gurrolla is a Latina and talked to reporters through an interpreter this week. Police said they do not know why her family was targeted, and advocates were worried that the city’s Hispanic population can be preyed upon by those claiming to be authorities.

New leads were coming in every hour, and the home has been searched for evidence that could lead to the suspect, police spokesman Don Aaron said. Officers were also looking for witnesses in the neighborhood of single-family brick homes and have a sketch of the kidnapper based on Gurrolla’s description but aren’t ready to release it to the public.

Police said they think the mom has been in Nashville about 10 years, but it isn’t clear if she is an immigrant or a citizen. Her family has declined to talk about the issue, and police spokesman Don Aaron said her citizenship was not significant to the investigation.

Gurrolla’s plea for the return of her son has touched the entire community, not just immigrants, said Terry Horgan, who runs Catholic Charities’ Hispanic services program in Nashville.

“The community is wounded when somebody steals a child,” he said. “It’s not simply the Latino community. Everybody is wounded.”

Immigrants must be taught to trust U.S. law enforcement and criminals can take advantage of their fears of deportation or police, said Yuri Cunza, president of Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and publisher of La Noticia, a Spanish language newspaper in Nashville.

“I am really concerned about the possibility of newborn babies and Hispanic women can be targeted because of a level of vulnerability,” Cunza said.

A similar case targeted a Latino family in Nashville in 2005. Christina Delarosa Sanchez pleaded guilty to the murder of Hilda Griselda Gutierrez and her 3-year-old daughter in a foiled plot to steal the woman’s infant son.

According to court records, Sanchez visited food stamp offices looking for Hispanic women who had recently given birth. She approached Gutierrez and offered to help her get legal documents that would allow her to travel out of the country.

Later, she showed up at Gutierrez’s home with a man and they stabbed and strangled Gutierrez and her daughter. The attempted kidnapping was foiled when the infant’s father arrived at the home just after the killings.

Sanchez was sentenced to terms of life in prison.

Cunza said that the suspect posing as an immigration officer will create a chilling effect for Hispanics who regularly interact with immigration authorities. “It is misrepresenting how the government works or behaves in this country,” he said.

A blue yard sign outside Gurrolla’s home announces, “IT’S A BOY!” Police spokeswoman Kristin Mumford said she doesn’t know whether Gurrolla was targeted because of the sign.

Cunza applauded the effort by local and federal authorities, noting billboards and interstate signs all over Nashville publicizing the case and asking for tips.

“So far the efforts I see are totally color-blind,” he said. “We all take an important key role in fighting crime because it’s our community. What may happen to one person, whether she is Hispanic or not, it can happen to anyone.”