Senate passes new child kidnapping provision

Thursday, May 6, 2004

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A bill prompted by a prosecutor's frustration in a child abduction case moved closer Wednesday to final passage. The legislation creates the crime of "child kidnapping," which would apply in cases where a child under 14 is taken without a parent's consent. The charge could not be filed if the abductor and child were related within the third degree -- as a noncustodial parent, for example. First introduced in the House, the legislation was amended and approved Wednesday in the Senate. The two chambers must now work out any differences. The bill grew out of the Feb. 11 abduction of 1-month-old Jesse Peaster from his parents' home near Cole Camp, in west-central Missouri. The infant was found unharmed in Kansas City later that day.

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