PORTLAND -- The parents of a two-year-old boy who vanished from his home in North Portland Sunday were overjoyed to have him back in their arms after a woman was arrested in his alleged kidnapping.
"It's the most traumatizing thing a parent can go through," said the boy's mother, Renee Ershbock.
The boy's parents had thought he was with his grandparents at church for several hours, and they called police Sunday afternoon when they realized he was not. Now they believe a stranger went onto their porch, or possibly even into their home, and grabbed the boy.
It wasn't until the grandparents returned from church that the family realized the boy was missing and called police. Investigators questioned the parents and then reunited them with the boy, who was not injured.
”I’m glad my son is safe; it was a very scary time for all of us,” Ershbock told KGW. ”We didn’t realize he was missing because often the kids go to church with their grandparents. It was just one of those gaps where grandma assumed he went upstairs with mommy and daddy, where he often goes.”
Investigators believe the child was taken before 9 a.m., Sunday. A short time later, police received several 9-1-1 calls about a disheveled woman walking near the 3900 block of N. Mississippi Avenue with the child in her arms, according to Lt. Robert King.
Responding officers found the boy with 30-year-old Lisa Kemper, who King described as a mentally ill woman known to police. He said she was confused and wearing men's underwear and a tank top.
Several people called 9-1-1 to report the odd scene, including employees at The Fresh Pot restaurant.
"This woman came in and she looked incredibly disheveled and I just kind of thought that things weren’t right because she was carrying a kid in his PJ’s and she was only wearing boxer briefs and a tank top,” one worker told KGW Monday.
The child was initially put in an undisclosed foster home Sunday morning until the parents contacted police about four hours later.
Kemper was arrested for kidnapping and custodial interference.
"A lot of assumptions were made," Ershbock told KGW. "People didn’t know the story and they wanted to find someone to blame, but the fact of the matter is, a crazy lady took my baby."
A neighbor with a surveillance camera provided KGW with video that appeared to show Kemper carrying the toddler down the street. Police later confirmed that the subjects in the video were Kemper and the boy.
Raw: Video of suspect with toddler
