Authorities: No evidence yet that kidnapping suspect was pregnant

~ Shannon Torrez was charged with first-degree assault, kidnapping and armed criminal action.

UNION, Mo. -- As the family celebrated the return of baby Abby Woods on Wednesday, authorities cast doubt on claims that the woman accused of slashing a young mother's throat and kidnapping the baby had in fact lost her own baby.

Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said investigators are trying to determine if Shannon Torrez had actually been pregnant and lost a full-term baby on the same day she attacked the baby's mother.

"There is speculation maybe she wasn't," Toelke said at a late afternoon news conference.

Torrez, 36, of Lonedell, Mo., was charged with kidnapping, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action. She was being held on $1 million bond and was to be arraigned today. Franklin County prosecutor Robert Parks said more charges could be filed.

Torrez told investigators she delivered a stillborn baby Friday before attacking Stephenie Ochsenbine.

Toelke said investigators have been searching for a dead infant to support her story but had not found anything by late Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier Wednesday, Ochsenbine cradled her newborn daughter and told a national TV audience she couldn't describe the feeling.

"The last several days have been draining, just exhausting. But I can handle anything now," the 21-year-old woman said on NBC's "Today" show, her neck bandaged after her throat was slashed during Friday's abduction.

"She belongs with me," Ochsenbine told MSNBC. "We're doing great now, we're whole again and she's very content, actually. Said father James Woods: "I just wanted to hug her."

The chain of events leading to the crime began when Torrez, who was nine months pregnant, lost the baby, apparently on Friday, authorities initially said. According to a probable-cause statement, she was driving on Highway 47 later that day and passed by Ochsenbine's small frame home, where a "Welcome Home Abby" sign stood.

Torrez reportedly stopped at the home, asked to use the phone, then attacked Ochsenbine with a knife and left with the baby. After being unconscious for a time, Ochsenbine gathered up her 1-year-old son Connor, who was unharmed, and went to a neighbor's home.

After a frantic five-day search that drew international attention to the rural area 45 miles southwest of St. Louis, the baby was returned and Torrez arrested Tuesday after her sister-in-law, Dorothy Torrez, contacted authorities.

Phone calls to addresses for Shannon and Dorothy Torrez were not answered Wednesday.

Questions abound about how Shannon Torrez could have endured childbirth, dealt with her own deceased child and recovered enough physically to allegedly attack Ochsenbine -- all in the same day.

During the search for Abby, investigators had profiled the abductor as someone who had a child die recently or as someone who could not have children.

Shannon Torrez lives just a few miles from Ochsenbine's home near Lonedell, Corvington said. She worked as a nail technician for a year and a half in St. Charles before being fired in 2005 for unprofessional behavior and not having a license, said Vel Green, director of Spa Winghaven.

Stephenie Ochsenbine's grandfather, James Ochsenbine, said the weekend was emotional torture for the young couple and relatives.

"They went through quite a lot," he said. "I couldn't really say there's a silver lining to it, except for the idea that Abby is back safe and sound and as beautiful as ever. And she's going to be safe from now on."