Woman indicted on kidnap charges

The Associated Press

CHICAGO -- A woman accused of stealing a toddler from a Chicago bus station on Christmas Eve and taking the child to West Virginia was indicted Thursday on federal kidnapping charges.

Prosecutors allege Sheila Matthews abducted 16-month-old Jasmine Anderson of Milwaukee on Christmas Eve from a Greyhound bus terminal in Chicago. Police found the girl in West Virginia after a nationwide search.

Matthews, who gave her age as 35, was being held without bail at the government's Metropolitan Correctional Center.

If convicted, Matthews could be sentenced to life in prison.

Authorities said Matthews took the child to cover up a story she told her boyfriend, that she had had his baby while he was in prison.

Police said she went to the bus station looking for a baby.

The child's mother, Marcella Anderson, told police she and her two daughters were waiting for a bus home to Milwaukee when a woman offered to give them a ride.

She said the woman also suggested that she could hold Jasmine while the mother returned the family's tickets. Anderson was waiting in line to return the tickets when the woman disappeared with the child.