NATIONAL CITY, Calif. - Authorities in Baja California issued an Amber Alert for a woman suspected of kidnapping her baby from a facility in National City.
Authorities said 36-year-old Erika Ramos Saucedo went to the South Bay Women's Recovery Center (2414 Hoover Ave.) on Nov. 8, kidnapped 2-month-old Maximus Garcia Ramos and fled to Tijuana.
The child's father, Jose Garcia, said Ramos told him via text message on the morning of her visit to the facility that she was going to take her son. She also said she was planning to kill herself and the baby because she did not have money.
Garcia said Ramos' visit was supposed to be supervised.
"My son and baby's mama was left unattended and that's where she got the opportunity and she kidnapped my son," Garcia told 10News.
According to Garcia, Child Protective Services waited for an hour before alerting authorities in San Diego that young Maximus was missing. He believes the delay gave Ramos plenty of time to enter Mexico.
Adding to his frustration and pain, Garcia also said he had to file his own paperwork in order to have an Amber Alert launched in Tijuana so he can have a search conducted there.
Garcia has expressed serious concern for his son because he said Ramos is a known methamphetamine user, and he claims she is suicidal. He noted that her drug use is the reason why she lost custody of the child.
"I'm afraid for my son's life; not his safety, his life," Garcia said. "I'm heartbroken not knowing where my son's at."
A San Diego County spokesperson confirmed that Maximus was taken during a supervised visit, adding, "We don't have details at this time. We can confirm the baby was taken by his mother. Local law enforcement says they fled to Mexico. The main priority at this time is to get the child back safely. The County will investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident."
Authorities said Ramos, a Mexican citizen, entered Mexico driving a white Suzuki California with license plate number 7PPW607.
UPDATE: On Friday, the head of the McAlister Institute, Jeanne McAlister, told Team 10's Adam Racusin the supervised visit never happened.
McAlister said there was a scheduled supervised visit with another agency, but the location was closed when everything happened.
McAlister said Ramos and the person dropping of the infant got there early, prior to the location opening. She said that person dropping off the baby just gave him to the mother in the public parking lot, and the institute was not involved.
Team 10 asked a county spokesperson if San Diego County had custody at the time, but there has been no response as of early Friday evening.
