Attorney: Abducted Tenn. baby’s mom regaining custody, cleared of baby-selling claim

Attorney: Abducted baby’s mom regaining custody

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A lawyer says a Tennessee mom whose newborn was kidnapped has been cleared of baby-selling allegations and will be reunited with her four children.

Thomas Miller was appointed by the courts to represent Maria Gurrolla’s children. He said Tuesday that a custody hearing was canceled amid an investigation into a claim that the family tried to sell the baby.

The baby was found in an Alabama woman’s home last week after he was abducted during a Sept. 29 knife attack at Gurrolla’s home. A suspect is in custody.

Miller says the family will soon be reunited and police determined the baby’s parents weren’t trying to sell him.

Officials with Nashville police, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Children’s Services didn’t immediately return calls.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A kidnapped newborn and three siblings were taken away from their mother following allegations that a family member tried to sell the baby, according to officials familiar with the case.

Mom Maria Gurrolla was briefly reunited with newborn Yair Anthony Carillo over the weekend before state child welfare officials placed all four children in foster care. A custody hearing is set for Tuesday, but records are closed because the case is in juvenile court.

Two officials confirmed the baby-selling allegations but spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. They could not say how or if the allegations were related to the kidnapping.

Week-old Yair was safely recovered in Alabama on Friday, three days after he was snatched from his Nashville home. His mother said he was taken after a woman posing as an immigration agent attacked her with a knife.

An Alabama woman is in custody, facing a federal kidnapping charge. State officials said only that they took Gurrolla’s children after Yair was found because of safety concerns.

Rob Johnson, a spokesman for the Department of Children’s Services, and spokesmen for the FBI and Nashville police would not comment on the baby-selling report.

Authorities said investigators at first focused on finding the baby but now are looking into exactly what happened and who was involved. Tammy Renee Silas, 39, of Ardmore, Ala., was charged after authorities said they found the baby at her home about 80 miles south of Nashville.

Gurrolla told investigators that after she was stabbed, the abductor made a phone call and said in Spanish “The job is done” and that the mother “was dying,” according to the criminal complaint against Silas.

Investigators are still trying to answer “significant questions, perhaps the most important of which is why this newborn was chosen over everybody else in the city,” Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said.

Silas has given a statement to investigators, according to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kristin Helm, who declined to detail what she said. No one could name a lawyer for her. Gurrolla and other family members could not be reached at her home on Monday, and it wasn’t clear if they are being represented.

Silas has not been charged in the attack on Gurrolla, who was stabbed several times and suffered a collapsed lung.

Gurrolla had pleaded at a news conference the day after the kidnapping for the baby to be returned. But her reunion with him on Saturday was short because state child welfare officials quickly took him and the other three children — ages 3, 9 and 11.

Gurrolla told investigators she had never seen the woman who stabbed her. According to the arrest warrant, Gurrolla was targeted while she and a cousin, identified only as “JS,” were running errands and visiting a state food assistance office.

A car that police said Silas rented was seen on a surveillance video following Gurrolla before the attack, and the car rental information led police to her home.

Yair’s father lives in Nashville, and Gurrolla’s marital status was unclear. Police have said they were treating the case as a stranger kidnapping.

Police have not released a motive, but Silas’ live-in boyfriend, Martin Rodriguez, told The Associated Press that she said she could not have children and wanted to adopt a child from a relative in Texas who was going to jail.