Investigators said that Blessing was in her own home the entire time. Ilunga has since left her home with all seven of her children, including Blessing, and police are trying to find the family. Police said the case began on Jan. The mother reported that she put Blessing into her vehicle, then ran inside to get her other children. During that time, she said her vehicle was stolen. According to police, Ilunga reiterated six times to dispatchers that Blessing was in the car.
Nearly nine hours after she was reported missing, around 3 p. The police chief said officers were immediately suspicious because Blessing was not in distress, and she was warm. Through the investigation, police learned Blessing was inside her own home for the entire duration of the search. McCloud said Blessing was never missing. While police were searching the home to find Blessing, she was there, but Ilunga reportedly lied to officers and said the child was a different daughter named Baraka.
McCloud said Ilunga spoke to officers in English but spoke to her family in Swahili. Later in the investigation when police were combing through hours of body camera footage, they realized Ilunga was instructing her other children in Swahili to go along with the lie. However, there is an officer with the police department that also speaks Swahili and was able to translate the body camera footage. Ilunga was lying to us from the very beginning.
Officers were also suspicious when Ilunga refused to provide a photo of Blessing for police to use in the search. McCloud said that throughout the day, a detective was assigned to stay with Ilunga at the home. And now, officers do not know the whereabouts of Ilunga and her seven children. As far as the stolen vehicle is concerned, police made five arrests. Any kidnapping charges have been dropped since police say Blessing was never in the car.
Jaron Bailey-Harris , 18, was arrested and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle. He is set to be back in court Feb.
