Video footage of the day baby Kai-isha Meniers was kidnapped shows how the snatcher avoided close-up imagery of herself as she walked off with the baby.
Two-month-old Kai-isha, was kidnapped last week Saturday, after a stranger who pretended to be eight months pregnant, befriended her mother Francis Meniers by offering to buy and donate goodies for the baby.
In the footage obtained exclusively by Weekend Argus, the woman is seen walking very slowly towards Lavis Drive after the infant’s mother went into a nearby shop to buy groceries.
Watch: Baby snatcher strolls off with two-month-old Kai-Isha Meniers last Saturday in Bishop Lavis. The desperate search for the newborn and her kidnapper continues. pic.twitter.com/BOXuPXGLeY
— Weekend Argus (@WeekendArgus) May 7, 2022
In the 28-second long video, the woman is seen dressed in a long-sleeved top with polkadots and pants. She can be seen walking calmly passed other shoppers.
As she approaches the camera mounted directly in front of her, she can be seen turning around and walking away with her back towards it before disappearing down the parking lot.
The woman has not been spotted since.
Hours before this, Meniers said the suspect had spent half the day offering her gift as a means of establishing trust.
She said when the unknown woman first approached her, she pretended to be pregnant with a baby boy but had bought baby clothes for a girl and wanted to give them away.
“She then said she has a lot of girl clothing that she would like to donate. I said no, its okay because how would she get it to me?
“I didn’t find it strange, because that's how women are, we speak to each other when we stand in shops.
“I then changed my mind because she said I would be taking her blessing away from her if I said no.”
Menier said she walked home with Kai-isha and told her eldest daughter to wait at the shops for the suspect to hand over the milk she’d bought.
“When my daughter came home, the woman (came along). I asked why she brought the woman with, my daughter said its because she wanted to see where we live to drop the clothing she spoke about.”
Meniers explained that when she to return to the shop for the second time, the woman followed her.
By this time, Menier said she felt more comfortable with this woman and hand over a sleeping Kai-isha and left her 11-year-old son to stand outside while she went into the shop.
This would be the last time Meniers would see Kai-isha.
But once she returned, the woman and the baby were nowhere to be found.
“The woman sent my child to go buy sweets and in that time she disappeared. I ran towards the Bellville taxi’s because she said she’s from there, but couldn’t find her.”
Police spokesperson, Captain Frederick van Wyk the search for the missing baby continues.