Genuine woman stealing a child to care for Versus the mccann's Maddie stolen by a childless family to love and care for claim.

TOWN OF BELOIT, Wis – An hour after a woman reported her newborn son missing from a Wisconsin home, police were questioning her step-sister -- found with a prosthetic pregnancy belly, baby clothes and a stroller, but no baby, according to court documents.

It was more than 24 hours after Kayden Powell went missing before authorities discovered the infant, less than a week old, in a plastic storage crate outside an Iowa gas station, miraculously alive and well despite frigid temperatures.

Kristen Smith of Denver had pretended to be pregnant, went to Wisconsin and stole her step-sister's baby from his bassinet as his parents slept, court documents say. Then, as police closed in on her, she allegedly abandoned the infant, who was swaddled in blankets.

Federal prosecutors in Madison charged Smith with kidnapping Friday afternoon, hours after an Iowa police chief found Kayden.

"He's strong," the newborn's great-uncle, Mark Bennett, said of the boy. "I'm glad that baby is still living instead of in a ditch somewhere on a strange highway."

The discovery of the infant shortly after 10 a.m. Friday capped a frantic search that involved police officers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

It began after the boy's mother, Brianna Marshall, called police around 4:30 a.m. Thursday to report her newborn had vanished from Bennett's home, where she and the baby's father, Bruce Powell, had been staying, according to police and the affidavit.

Marshall said Smith had left the house a couple of hours earlier to return to Colorado. While police were at the house, Smith called on her cellphone. She told police that Marshall and Bruce Powell were planning to move to Denver on Saturday to live with her and she had Kayden's clothes in her car but didn't have the boy.

Police told her to pull over for questioning. An officer met her at a Kum & Go gas station near Interstate 80 in West Branch, Iowa. She was arrested about 5:30 a.m. on an outstanding Texas warrant, but she denied any knowledge of Kayden's whereabouts, the affidavit says.

A search of her cellphone revealed emails in which she said she gave birth on Feb. 5, according to the court document. A search of her Facebook page turned up postings in which she claimed she was pregnant.

Smith didn't appear pregnant, according to the affidavit. A pregnancy test that was administered while she was in custody came back negative, U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said.

Meanwhile, dozens of officers began searched for the child at possible stop-offs along Smith's route from Wisconsin to Iowa. West Branch Police Chief Mike Horihan decided to check the area around a BP station about 500 yards from the station where Smith was arrested. He heard a baby's cries and discovered Kayden in a closed storage crate alongside the building. The newborn was responsive and healthy, the chief said.

"I had tears in my eyes," BP station manager Jay Patel said, recalling his reaction to the police chief telling him that the infant had been found. "It's good news, but it's sad, too."

Temperatures in West Branch, about 180 miles southwest of the Town of Beloit, dipped below zero Thursday night into Friday. They were still in the single digits when the baby was found.

"Surprisingly with the weather the way it was, he was surprisingly healthy," Horihan, the Iowa police chief, said. "To be honest with you, that's not what I expected." The baby was taken to an Iowa City hospital, where he was reunited with his parents and released Friday evening.

Online court records didn't list a defense attorney for Smith. She faces life in prison if convicted.

Police interviewed Smith again after Kayden was discovered, the affidavit said, and she admitted she had taken the baby and left him at the BP station.

Bennett, the baby's great-uncle, told The Associated Press he first met Smith on Thursday night, when he came home and found her, his mother and the baby's mother and father in his house. He said his mother later explained to him that Marshall and her step-sister had the same father but different mothers.

He went to his room in the basement. When he woke up, the baby and Smith were gone.

He said he kept telling Marshall that Smith had to have taken the child, but Marshall refused to believe it. The baby's bassinet was 2 feet from the parents' bed and he found a paring knife on the ground next to it.

"I could have woke up to a bloody mess," Bennett said.

He said he hopes Smith gets locked up for life.

"You stole him like you're stealing something from the grocery store," the great-uncle said. "Nobody in their right mind should have thought of that."

Smith appears to go by multiple names and has had run-ins with the law in multiple states, authorities said. The Texas warrant stems from a felony indictment charging her with tampering with government documents late last year while she was in jail in Colorado.

A spokesman for the Arapahoe County, Colo., sheriff's office declined to discuss the details of her arrest there. A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office in Tarrant County, Texas, said it's not clear why Colorado authorities released Smith instead of sending her back to Texas.

 This is a classic example of a child abduction by a woman desperate to have a baby for whatever reason such as infertility, miscarriage etc. 

 The age is right as they can pass the child off as their own after a faked pregnancy.

They often go to extremes to pretend pregnancy as can be seen in this case.

Most times the baby is found as family members and relatives notice unusual behavior by the 'mother' and have heard about an infant abduction. 

Abduction by a childless woman is not going to mean grabbing a nearly 4 yr old toddler who can talk, 

There is no way in hell they could claim they just gave birth, a 57 month pregnancy is unusual, in fact, extremely rare in humans, 

Abduction of a child by a mentally healthy woman is rare especially these days with advances in IVF, adoption and even fostering. 

Some countries offer free IVF for a number of cycles, making it unlikely they will steal a child. 

Abduction by gypsies is so medieval, just read the fairy stories. 

Why steal a child when you can legally buy one if you want a child of a certain color, you can definitely illegally buy one if you have nefarious deeds in mind as we have seen all too often in the media.

 This then leaves us with either abduction by paedophile in which case she is long dead  or parental involvement , in which case she is also long dead.

Paedophiles usually grab from outside rather than indoors due to the risk of being caught by a parent or other responsible adult and the forensic evidence they would leave behind.

They will not abduct a dead child or abuse, murder/accidentally kill the child and then take the body with them since it is pretty damn hard to hide a body when they could leave it in situ and make for a speedy getaway. 

This leaves us then with the most common crime abuse/killing by a parent/family member/someone known to the family with access to the child. 

Since we have evidence that there was a dead body in the apartment and Maddie is missing, the obvious and logical answer, is, Maddie died in the apartment. 

We then need to ask why did Maddie die and how? 

Int the majority of cases it is from neglect or abuse either over a long period of time , the proverbial red-headed step child who is blamed for all the family woes or when the parent loses their temper and lashes out. 

Other options often seen, particularly with mothers with mental health issues is altruistic death, the child is sick and they put it out of its misery.

The parent doesn't want to leave the child parent less/motherless if suicide is contemplated.

Religious reasons as in they think they are saving the child soul from the devil, or the classic custody battles where one parent decides if i can't have them no one can. 

I exclude the latter since they were not divorcing ( that i know of) however, given kate's warnings, should divorce be a possibility or separation then the twins will likely be at risk. 

Of all the options i go with, either altruistic ( not my first choice) 

Custodial ( not likely) 

Long term neglect and abuse a la red headed step child as she was very demanding and had a temper etc so she would be blamed when things went wrong, or, loss of temper and ether deliberate killing or accidental killing (both of which are my choices)

If she didn't bond with Maddie then we have the neglect and the loss of temper conclusions and motive.

It is worth noting that after Maddie vanished, rather than the haunted laden down with fear, guilt, weight on her shoulders as we see in genuine abduction cases of children, instead kate blossomed as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Maddie gone meant the end of all her problems, she could now live the perfect life with the perfect family.

We only saw the stress, the haggard face etc only when the LE in 2 countries reopened/opened the case and the libel trial was going catastrophically wrong for them as well as public belief in them and media belief going downhill fast (the media actually allowing negative comments to be posted)

Kate seemed to be obsessed with their sleeping patters which might explain the sedation. 

When they were asleep she could cope and they were safe. 

I note also the fact that it seems she was unable to cope and had lots of family coming down to help, even to taking Maddie away from her for the twins first Christmas although it was explained as sending her away (positive spinning the fact that she wasn't allowed to share in the twins first Christmas which in anyone's head is a red flag leading to questions why it happened)

Was it a case of don't leave her alone with kids ever because of what might happen, and when they did, the result was a dead Maddie and the biggest cover up in history

Suspect in 6-day-old boy's kidnapping faked pregnancy, court papers say