A father's anguished plea for the return of his stolen newborn daughter has emerged in a harrowing Netflix documentary, alongside CCTV footage showing the moment a woman walked out of a Mexican hospital with the baby hidden inside a gift bag.
Father's Tearful Appeal
Filmed in the immediate aftermath of the abduction, the distraught father stands before a news organisation's camera and delivers a tearful appeal. "I love my baby so much" he says, his voice breaking. In a direct appeal to the public, he begged for their help, adding: "If you have her, I'll give you my life, everything I have. But please, give her back to me, please."
His words came just hours after CCTV cameras had captured Alejandra moving purposefully through the hospital's corridors, clutching a large gift bag from which pink tissue paper protruded at the top. The footage shows her walking in one direction before doubling back, then calmly leaving through the main entrance with the newborn concealed inside the bag.
The Abduction and Aftermath
The infant belonged to a woman named Mayra, who had been unaware of the danger her baby was in. While Mayra was in the bathroom shortly after giving birth, Alejandra took the newborn, placed her inside the gift bag, covered her with pink tissue paper, and walked out.
Alejandra had faked her third pregnancy driven by a desperate fear that her husband Arturo and his family would abandon her if she failed to provide them with a child. She had already suffered three miscarriages, and the psychological toll had proved devastating.
Conflicting Accounts and Sentencing
Her version of events, as told in the documentary's interviews, claimed she had met Mayra while working at a hospital and she further alleged the two had reached an informal agreement for Mayra to hand over her baby after the birth. Alejandra had claimed Mayra had told her she did not intend to keep the child.
The courts found no truth in that account. Mayra herself, who also speaks in the documentary, stated she had never met Alejandra before the day of the birth, when Alejandra had approached her posing as a social worker carrying out surveys. A prison psychiatrist later concluded that Alejandra had experienced a form of dissociation, leading her to genuinely believe in encounters that had never taken place.
The hospital raised the alarm as soon as the disappearance was discovered, and officers tracked Alejandra to a nearby hotel within hours. The baby was safely recovered and reunited with Mayra. Alejandra was subsequently convicted of unlawful kidnapping of a minor and sentenced to just over 13 years in prison. She has since been released having served her sentence in full.
Mayra's daughter is safe and well, and is now a happy and healthy teenager. A Child of My Own is on Netflix.
