Disappearance of Santiago: infant found alive in the Netherlands, his parents arrested

Untraceable since he was kidnapped on Monday from his maternity ward in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), little Santiago, then 17 days old, was found alive this Friday and his parents arrested in the area from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, according to sources close to the matter with France Bleu Paris and BFMTV.

“Santiago was found with his parents, they are all alive, in a hotel” in the Amsterdam region, confirmed a spokesperson for the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office (Seine-Saint-Denis) without providing further information.

Baby immediately hospitalized

“Following an international wanted notice, today (Friday) we arrested a man and a woman in a hotel in central Amsterdam on suspicion of kidnapping their premature baby. The baby is currently hospitalized to receive the care he needs,” the Amsterdam police then confirmed on X.

In Belgium, where a wanted notice had been issued on Tuesday evening, the king's prosecutor of Mons-Tournai, Vincent Macq, immediately rejoiced: “The good news is that this child was found alive, apparently in good health,” he told AFP.

Constant medical care required

Santiago was kidnapped Monday evening between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. by his parents, aged 23 and 25, in the neonatology department of the Robert Ballanger hospital in Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris. Very premature, born eight weeks early, his life depended on constant medical care.

Tuesday morning, his disappearance was the cause of the triggering of the French “kidnapping alert” system. Subsequently, a national wanted notice was launched in Belgium, where the couple was suspected of having fled. European arrest warrants had also been issued against the parents.

The motives for the kidnapping remained to be clarified, the prosecutor said on Thursday, but it is likely that the parents feared losing custody of their child and that he would be placed in care. On the day of the incident, they had an interview with the hospital teams.

Accomplices in the escape?

Three people from their entourage were also arrested on Tuesday in Seine-Saint-Denis. Two men, a minor and an adult, were charged with kidnapping and sequestration of a minor under the age of 15 in an organized gang and provisionally imprisoned, the prosecution said this Friday. They “admitted to having accompanied the couple and the infant in their flight to Belgium, before returning in the night,” the Bobigny prosecutor indicated at a press conference on Thursday. And a woman was charged with failure to report a crime and placed under judicial supervision.