Mother, police seek return of toddler via media effort

CHICAGO -- Both police and the mother of a 16-month-old girl who was allegedly abducted from a bus station on Christmas Eve by a woman with a tattoo are trying to garner as much media attention as they can to help locate the little girl.

"All I can think about is her and her little face and not knowing where she's at or who she's with," the toddler's mother, Marcella Anderson, said of her daughter, Jasmine, during a Wednesday news conference.

Her voice breaking with emotion, Anderson pleaded with the woman who she says took Jasmine.

"I just really wish you would have a heart and a mind to bring her home where she belongs, with her mother, her sister and her father," she said. "It's just the worst thing to take a baby on Christmas Eve, the worst present you could ever get."

Since the little girl disappeared, police and Anderson have appeared on local and national news shows. Chicago newspapers have detailed the story of the missing girl. And on Wednesday, the search for Jasmine was featured on a CNN talk show. Police also are providing regular updates on the search.

"We're looking for a 16-month-old baby," said Officer Thomas Donegan. "We need the help of everybody anywhere who might have seen the girl or the woman."