Sick Baby Girl Abducted From Day-Care Crib

An ailing 14-month-old baby girl disappeared Thursday afternoon from a Garden Grove day-care center, and police launched a “child stealing” investigation, going door-to-door in search of a woman who had been at the facility ostensibly to enroll her own infant.

Witnesses saw the woman leave the building with the child, who requires medication for a severe ear infection, according to Garden Grove Police Investigator Pam French.

Victoria Marie Clark of Garden Grove was last seen shortly before 3 p.m. asleep in a crib at the Young Horizons day-care center in the 6200 block of Cerulean Avenue, Garden Grove Police Lt. Ken Whitman said.

Whitman described the baby, known as “Vickie,” as about 30 inches tall, weighing 21 pounds, with brownish black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a lavender terry cloth two-piece jogging suit with a hooded top, pink tennis shoes and socks.

“She has a very severe ear infection and is in need of medication that was prescribed for her yesterday (Wednesday),” Whitman said.

Suspect in Her 20s

The woman police are seeking was described as in her 20s, about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, 145 to 150 pounds with a dark complexion, brown wavy shoulder-length hair, brown eyes and heavy acne on her face. She was dressed in a white knit suit, with a pullover and long skirt with a light green pattern, Whitman said.

The woman also had what appeared to be numerous pierce marks on the outer lobe of her right ear and wore three distinctive star-shaped pieces of jewelry with some “little things hanging off them,” Whitman said.

The baby’s father, engineer Matthew Clark, 29, was at work in Redondo Beach, and his accountant wife, Debbie, 30, was at work in Los Angeles when they learned their daughter was missing.

Debbie Clark said Thursday night that she received a telephone call about 3 p.m. from the day-care center asking her to call her husband to see if he had picked up their daughter. She said she knew immediately something was wrong because her husband would not pick up Vickie that early.

“She has an ear infection, and we’re very concerned because obviously the person who has her doesn’t know that,” Debbie Clark said.

The mother also made a plea to the person to took the child to: “Please return her to us. We love her very much and we’re very concerned about her illness.”

Police said that about 3 p.m. Thursday a woman entered the day-care center for a second time that day on the pretense of registering her child. The school employee speaking with her was called away, Whitman said, and when the employee returned both the woman and Vickie were gone, he said.

The woman had seen the child sleeping while being taken on a tour of the facility, Whitman said.

Debbie Clark said the woman had mentioned to an employee that she was concerned that she would not be a good mother, also leaving the impression that she was separated from her own child.

“She took one look at Vickie and said: ‘That’s what my daughter looked like,’ ” Debbie Clark said, quoting an unnamed day-care center employee.

“It’s not the right way to get a daughter,” Matthew Clark said.

“The suspect had been at the place about two hours making out application forms to enroll her (own) 14-month-old child at the day-care center,” Whitman said.

Garden Grove police established a 24-hour-a-day hot line for telephone calls from anyone with information about the case. The telephone number is: (714) 638-6615.