Police: Babysitter kidnaps child, tells boyfriend it’s his

When a Nashville couple realized their 4-month-old daughter, Jalayia Gonzalez, and babysitter Javeele Thomas were gone on Jan. 8, they reported both missing.

But things took a strange turn when the family saw posts on social media that led them to believe the baby was in Lineville, Ala., with 22-year-old Thomas, according to Lineville police. What unfolded led to a missing baby safely returned home and one confused “new dad” in Alabama.

Lineville Police said that on Sunday at about 8:35 a.m., a Metro Nashville police detective contacted the department about the missing child and Thomas and said the two could be in the area.

Lineville police officers noticed a young female with a baby at the Regency Apartment complex on College Street in Lineville. They noticed a white Dodge Challenger pull into the complex with a county tag from an area on the route from Tennessee into Alabama.

When officers saw a male and female get into the car, they conducted a traffic stop.

A male driver, Thomas and Gonzales were in the vehicle, according to a press release Tuesday from Lineville Police Chief Monty Giddens.

Lineville police said the male driver was under the impression he was bringing Thomas, his girlfriend and the mother of his child, and Gonzales, his daughter, to meet and spend time with his family while he went to National Guard drill on Sunday.

“Come to find out, Ms. Thomas had told her boyfriend back in May/June 2014 she was pregnant and he was the father,” Giddens said in the release. “Around October, she lost the child and broke contact with the father in November. She re-established contact with the father, telling him she was out of town and that she had the baby.

The Lineville Police Department contacted the Alabama Department of Human Resources to take custody of the child until she could be returned to her family.

Thomas was charged with kidnapping in the second degree and placed in the Clay County Detention Center in Alabama.

Contact reporter Jordan Buie at 615-726-5970 or on Twitter @jordanbuie