MINDEN, LA (KSLA) - A 2-month-old boy believed kidnapped and feared dead was found early Monday morning unharmed under an interstate overpass near Minden.
Minden police had been searching since baby Elijah was discovered missing around 3:30 a.m., but it was a call from a homeless man that broke the case.
According to Minden Police Chief Steve Cropper, the infant was last seen at his Minden home sometime after midnight, when 25-year-old Kyshaun Wilson took him into the kitchen for a bottle because he was crying.
Both were discovered missing around 3:30 a.m., prompting a search.
At some point, Chief Cropper says Wilson walked out the door with the baby and apparently headed down Highway 371 on foot toward Interstate 20.
From what investigators have pieced together, Wilson left the child beneath the I-20 overpass at the Sibley Exit 47 around 3 a.m. and hitched a ride to Shreveport.
After arriving at Sam's Town in Shreveport, Wilson allegedly told a homeless man what he had done.
The homeless man called Shreveport police, who made contact with Wilson. Cropper says Wilson initially denied knowing anything about the missing infant but eventually provided information that helped Minden police home in on the baby's location.
Officers had already been searching in Minden, but the search became more frantic when Wilson allegedly indicated that he had done something bad.
"We were scared we were going to find the baby deceased," Cropper says.
The precarious spot where the infant was found beneath the overpass by one of the officers around 7 a.m. was no less frightening.
"Scariest thing about it if he were able to roll off that ledge, he would have hit that concrete retaining ledge and probably would have rolled right out into the interstate," said Chief Cropper.
The baby boy was wrapped in a blanket, sleeping. Cropper says he only suffered minor abrasions. He was taken to Minden Medical Center to be checked out.
Wilson is in Shreveport police custody, held on a warrant out of Minden for aggravated kidnapping.
Chief Cropper believes Wilson is not a blood relative to the baby but is known to the family.
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