Law&Crime Sidebar - Couple Kidnapped Newborn from Hospital After Faking Pregnancy: Cops

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

Rosa Vespa and Acqua Moses are accused of kidnapping a baby from an Italian hospital and pretending it was their own. Police say Vespa pretended to be pregnant for months before announcing on Facebook that the baby had been born. But police say she was never pregnant. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber takes a closer look at the bizarre case with former NYPD detective Tom Smith.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Remove your personal information from the web at https://joindeleteme.com/sidebar and use code Sidebar for 20% off! DeleteMe international plans: https://international.joindeleteme.comHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Imagine giving birth to a baby and while in the hospital recovering, your child is kidnapped. That is the terrifying story out of Italy that we're going to be breaking down for you and wait till you hear how this went down and we're still trying to figure out what the alleged motive may have been welcome to sidebar presented by law and crime i'm jesse weber all right so this is absolutely terrifying we're going to go overseas for this one this is in cosenza italy more specifically so just a few days ago baby sophia was born and just 24 hours

after she was born she was allegedly kidnapped from a maternity ward this is crazy This is apparently all captured on CCTV footage from the Sacroquodai hospital, as reported by the Daily Mail. I apologize if I butchered that, but, you know, my best Italian, there you go. So you have a woman who's dressed in a nurse's uniform wearing a face mask. I'm going to guess it's not for health reasons, maybe more of a disguise, is seen carrying Sophia and taking this baby out with the help of a man. Now, as frightening as this situation is, there is a happy resolution here, because just hours later,

these alleged culprits were caught. The Mirror UK reporting that they were found in a car on the outer banks of this city. This was before the car had entered onto the highway, the Daily Mail identifying them as 53-year-old's Rosa Vespa and Aqua Moses, although other outlets say that Vespa is 51 and Moses is 43, couldn't really get confirmation on that. But here is the good news. Baby Sophia is okay and she has been returned to her family. In fact, Sophia's mother, Valeria Chippiata, was reportedly very emotional when her daughter was returned to her, thanking police and saying, we had died, but now we are reborn, we had lost all hope.

She added, I want to thank everyone involved for bringing Little Sophia back to us. People have been messaging from all over, and I wish I could thank everyone personally, but there are thousands. And she also added, it is thanks to the police and the entire city who helped us find Little Sophia. We can't thank everyone enough. This is not even the wildest part of this whole story. What do I mean by that? Well, how did these suspects allegedly pull this off? So according to the Mirror UK, the pair allegedly got into the hospital claiming they were family members of the newborn wanting to see this baby.

And then the woman, allegedly Vespa, pretended to be a nurse, allegedly told Sophia's mom that she had to take the baby to the pediatric unit for a checkup. But that is when she's allegedly seen on the video carrying the baby and trying to put her in a carry cop before leaving. Now, the family ends up realizing that Sophia never returns. That is when all chaos breaks loose to try to find, where is this baby? And now you might be saying, well, why would somebody do this? Well, according to a police spokesperson that spoke with the Daily Mail, this female suspect had been allegedly telling people for months that she was pregnant, even posted on social media a few days ago before the birth of this baby that she gave birth to a baby boy.

The online post read, after a long wait, our miracle has arrived. At 8 p.m. today, Anzel was born. Mom and Dad, love you. And accompanying that post was apparently a photo showing the arm of a baby. Wow. I know. And when Sophia was rescued, according to the police, she had actually been changed from a mini mouse outfit into a baby boy outfit.

Essentially, police are indicating this was planned out. And when law enforcement reportedly searched the feet. female suspects home. It apparently was decorated for the arrival of a new baby, balloons and everything. And the question, of course, is how could this happen? Could it have been prevented? What's next? While the hospital will reportedly launch an investigation to how this occurred, but according to the Daily Mail, they also came out and said, quote, the CCTV worked perfectly and helped us locate those responsible quickly and reunite the child with her family. Talking about a scary situation, by the way, let me tell you about something else. You might

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keep monitoring the sites for you. So your information doesn't find its way back on there after the first removal. And honestly, using DeleteMe has also given me peace of mind about my family, too, because if someone buys your data via a data broker, they can see information about your relatives too. So right now you can get 20% off of DeleteMe and protect your personal data when you go to join DeleteMe.com slash Sidebar. Use promo code Sidebar at checkout. Okay, let's get back into this. I want to talk about this more with retired and NYPD detective friend of the show, Tom Smith, who is at experience with international kidnapping cases. Tom, thanks so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. How lucky is this family to have their baby back?

Oh, extremely lucky. The luckiest people in the world at that moment, because this could have went real bad really quick. And as much planning as was put into this of the premeditation of it, the escape plan wasn't that great. and that's why they were able to get them as quick as possible. And criminals sometimes do that. They will lay out how to do a crime, how to pull it off, but the next step and escape route always get screwed up a little bit. And thankfully, that's what happened here. And I can't say enough about the quick response of the police involved

in getting the information out and responding there. That's what saved this baby's life. Based on the limited information we have, Do you get the sense that this was specifically targeting this baby or finding a baby, whether it was a girl or boy, and pretending it was a boy? I mean, based on the idea of the social media post and what was found at the home and just the overall, you know, crime that was committed here. Talk to us about what you think might have been going on here. Yeah, I don't think at this moment there's any connection between the perpetrators and the family. I think it was just a matter of getting up on that floor

and seeing the opportunity that was in front of them and seeing that family holding a baby, that was their spot. And, you know, like I said, the quick actions prevented this from being bad. But the premeditation of this is so scary and maniacal and diabolical, and that's what the scary part is. And hopefully the steps that the hospital is going to take and others are going to take to prevent this from happening again.

This is not the first case you've seen of a baby being kidnapped from a hospital, right? I mean, what precautions are being put in place? How does something like this happen? No, not at all. It happens. It happened a lot years ago more when stricter security was put into place in hospitals with color coordinated wristbands and, you know, entry into certain areas that have a security guard there or somewhat having to show ID to get in there. That's what needs to be done with this. Statement of, well, the CCTV worked is horrible.

That's not a preventative tactic when it comes to securing newborn babies. Yes, it worked, but that is not your sole security purpose of CCTVs. You need to have more of a lockdown in those areas that are the most vulnerable people maybe in that hospital. Do you think it's a matter of having the appropriate key cards to get from one space to the next? Is it having the appropriate identification? Still not clear how she was able to be dressed up like a nurse and have those materials and how he was able to get in. Again, I mentioned the idea of that they pretended to be family members or allegedly pretended to be family members. But in your experience, in these kinds of cases, what changes do you see happening?

Well, the identification of people right at the beginning of entering that hospital has to be done. You know, you have to stop it even before they get to a maternity ward or get even close to any newborns. identifying people who are waiting in awaiting areas where they should be until maybe you verify it with the family members. Hey, we have two family members here. Their names are A, B, and C. You know, is it, okay, they come in and visit. That's what needs to be done. You know, you can't wait until the perpetrators that are looking to do this are on the floor and able to do this.

It's got to be done way beforehand in sort of a perimeter type thinking. Talk to me about just generally, because it is a miracle that this baby is okay and returned back to the family. Talk to me about your experience with kidnapping investigations, perhaps international kidnapping investigations. What are the difficulties? What are the challenges? Does the age of the child play a particular factor as well? Oh, sure. The age is big because it's very easy to disguise a newborn baby in whatever you want. the clothing, how they're carried, being wrapped up a little bit more than having to transport a toddler or an older person, you know, around public. It's much easier to conceal that

of a newborn. And that's the challenges. And, you know, when it comes to, you know, investigations, it depends on the country and where it happens and how it happens. Italy being a very advanced culture, obviously, was able to get right on this with their response and getting the information out to the public. That is so key, Jesse, to involve the public in something like this, because I've said it so many times in other cases that the police can't be everywhere, but the public can be everywhere. And that's what worked in this to put it out there so quickly. And people's attention perk up a little bit more when it's a child or an infant that's involved in a crime. But the other problem is with kidnapping an infant or a newborn baby,

right is that child will look different and grow up rapidly it's different than if you kidnap an adult or you kidnap a juvenile you're kidnapped a teenager you know you can see what they look like and a baby um you know if they're kidnapped and then six months down the road or a year down the road how do you recognize them right that's a problem that i'd imagine that's a big issue that's a big issue and then add on top of that what that child as they're growing up is being told You know, that child's going to think of these two people as his parents or her parents and what they're teaching them. So once it gets to a point of who are you, they're not going to accept that anything bad happened to them or their life is any different than it has been. And that is always a big hurdle when it comes to these cases if they're found later on in life.

What do you think investigators are doing now after baby Sophia was recovered? What's the next step in the investigation? Well, I think who else, you know, if anyone else was involved, anyone in the hospital give her any tips on how to get into the hospital, you know, security flaws, you know, so they'll go into a deep dive, even though they're under arrest right now, into their social media, their communications, their phone calls, anything to do with anybody else that may have played a part in this. You know, did she have an advance heads up of how this hospital worked? That's going to be key. That's what I would, I would focus on. You already got them, but how did all this kind of come into play with entering the hospital? Yeah, I'm still curious about the why. It almost seems, and I don't know, I'm speculating here, but I'm curious in your experience, was the idea we had to still create the image that I gave birth to a baby and I need to find a baby fast. And I don't know why you had to put on that story. But in your experience, why do we see people?

you know, grab newborn babies like this? Yeah, well, a number of reasons. One, that they can't have children of their own or at some point in their life they may have lost a child and have that yearning to have one but can't again. So that's when the planning of this, it takes months to pull this off. You know, with the visuals of I'm pregnant

and I'm getting the house together, I bought a crib, all that. The planning of this takes months to set into to play. And that's the wild part of this story. It's not just a split second decision that she went and did this. This was so planned out over months. And, you know, if people are known to her, you have to pull that deception off because you can't just show up with a newborn baby. So you have to create the perception of being pregnant and going through the normal things that mothers go through and then pulling this off. And I want to emphasize something else, you know, the comment about the CCTV footage. It is important.

I don't know exactly how this this pair was tracked down, particularly before they went on the highway, which could have been problematic in and of itself. But I have to imagine the CCTV footage helped, but it is not the end-all be-all, right? Like we covered the Mangione case, and yes, surveillance footage is what helped the public actually identify him or him be identified in that McDonald's, but if he hadn't taken his mask down, CCTV footage, surveillance footage, very helpful, but it might not be enough, right? there are other cases. Look at the death of Rachel Moran, right? That alleged suspect was on that footage out in a different state and couldn't be identified for months. So it's an interesting

situation, right? We live in a digital world. Hopefully it's harder to commit a crime and not be tracked than it was, you know, 20 years ago with cell phones and cameras everywhere. But it's still, you see culprits, right, try to evade that in different ways. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's a great starting point. And it's a, it's not a preventative, but it is something that criminals have to think about. Look at banks. Criminals know banks are videoed and recorded, and that's a big preventative of bank robbers. But it's a good starting point to tracking someone if a crime happens. You know, once they have them captured on a video like that CCTV footage in the hospital, that leads to identifying them on outside perimeter cameras. Okay, there they are walking out of the

you know, the hospital. There's the car they get in. And then you start just systematically tracking it with other security cameras in the area. That was, you know, the U.S. health care murder in Manhattan. That's how they got that. They started it in one location and then you just piece it together like a puzzle and that leads to, you know, hopefully an ending. But CCTV is not a end-all-be-all preventative. It's a good tool, but not the end-all be-all by any stretch. Thank so much for coming on. Appreciate it breaking down for us. And listen, the best thing, this has been a very, very successful resolution. Baby Sophia is okay. She's back with her family. It is amazing to hear because, you know, in this business, it doesn't always work out this way.

We see a lot of really bad resolutions to this. But I'm glad that everything's okay. Tom, appreciate your perspective and appreciate your time. As always. Always a pleasure, Jesse. Thank you. All right, everybody. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.