On Monday, February 2, 1987, Maria Pacheco took her newborn son, Elias Monroy Jr., for a routine check-up at the LA-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Elias was only two weeks old and was born happy and healthy, but it had been a difficult delivery for Maria. Maria was still recovering from the Caesarean section and was experiencing a lot of pain, which was making it difficult to walk and get around.
While in the clinic waiting room, Maria was approached by a woman in her thirties, who said she was also a mother. The two chatted for a bit. Maria thought the woman was friendly and honest, so when Elias started to cry, Maria dug through her diaper bag but realized she didn’t bring enough bottles. The woman offered to hold Elias while she went to look for some formula, and Maria accepted.
Maria had only been gone for minutes when she returned; she noticed the woman and her son were gone.
At first, it was thought that the woman had simply gone to her appointment and taken the newborn with her, but no one matching her description was identified as a patient there or had an appointment. Little Elias had been kidnapped.
When detectives started investigating the a*bduction, detectives in Hesperia, California, reached out with a similar abd*uction attempt on January 14.
In that case, a woman who had similarities to the description of the LA ab*ductor approached a mother in a post office who was with her four-month-old son. This woman had started chatting with the mother and asked to hold her baby, which the mother declined.
She left the post office and continued running her errands. Later on in the day, she arrived at a Safeway. She parked and was unbuckling her son from the car seat when she noticed the woman from the post office barreling towards her.
The woman was saying, “I want the baby,” and tried to rip the child from his mother’s arms. And it was then that she noticed there was a man with the woman this time. The mother kicked at the woman, knocking her back, and then the man tried to take the child from her arms, and she kicked him as well, getting him between the legs, and she ran with her child into the grocery store.
She was helped by store employees, but the two child ab*ductors ran off. By the time law enforcement arrived, they were long gone.
The woman was described as Hispanic, thirty to thirty-five years old, around five foot seven, and one hundred and fifty pounds. Both said she had a dark complexion, and Maria said the woman had long brown hair, but the ends were frosted blonde. The mother didn’t get a good look at the man, and there isn’t a description of him.
Unfortunately, there are no photographs of Elias, but a new age progression image has been generated to show what he may look like today. Elias is Hispanic with brown hair and brown eyes. At the time of his abd*uction, he weighed eight pounds and was one foot and nine inches long.
He would be thirty-six years old today, and it is believed the woman ab*ducted him to raise as her own. He may still be in the California area. He may believe he was adopted as a child. Maria has put out a plea to social media, saying, “Elias, look for me! Communicate with me. I am your mom, and you were my dream come true, but someone took you from me.”
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is very hopeful in identifying Elias and reuniting him with his family. Anyone who recognizes Elias from the age progression image or the sketch of the ab*ductor is asked to contact the LAPD at 1–877-ASK-LAPD (1–877–275–5273) or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1–800-THE-LOST (1–800–843–5678).
