Last year's kidnapping of girl won't spoil this Christmas

CHICAGO -- Two-year-old Jasmine Anderson is safe at home this Christmas, but the holiday will forever be bittersweet for her family when they remember what they almost lost.

A year ago on Christmas Eve, little Jasmine was kidnapped from a Chicago bus station. Her mother, Marcella, was tired from traveling with two cranky children and had handed the baby to a stranger as she tried to cash in a bus ticket.

Anderson then turned and saw the woman disappear into a crowd with Jasmine.

After three days of nearly constant media attention and a nationwide hunt, FBI agents found Jasmine in the West Virginia home of a woman who had duped her boyfriend into thinking the child was theirs, born while he was in prison.

The little girl had an ear ache and a fever when the agents freed her and returned her to her mother.

The kidnapper, Sheila Matthews, is serving a 12 1/2-year prison term. Prosecutors showed she had twice before gained control of friends' children, changed their names and falsely claimed to be their natural mother.

She again falsely claimed pregnancy as she awaited sentencing.

Anderson, 22, said she still trusts people but pays closer attention to her surroundings. She also has gotten over the initial fear she had after the kidnapping of strangers talking to her children.

"As long as I'm there, and I have control of the situation, it's OK," Anderson told the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago police officers who were closely involved in the investigation of Jasmine's disappearance say that's all any parent can do.

"I saw the fear in this woman's eyes. It's a mother's worst nightmare," said Joe Gandurski, deputy chief of detectives at the time. "Every parent goes through this. How much do you try to control and insulate your children even though you want them to be independent?"

Anderson said Jasmine has few memories of the abduction, but her 4-year-old daughter Alesia remembers the incident more clearly.

In a store recently, Alesia blurted out that her sister had been kidnapped. Anderson had to explain to the people nearby that she was not the kidnapper, and that the incident was a year ago.

"It's amazing what they remember," she said.

Anderson and her daughters live in a small apartment in north Milwaukee. The girls' father, Gregory Knowles, plays an active role in the family but doesn't live with them.

Christmas will be happy for Anderson and her daughters, she said.

"It's been a good year. It's been good to be able to watch her grow and to see them (Jasmine and Alesia) interact," she said. "I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't gotten her back."