Family remember five days of hell when baby was taken
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WE SPOKE to a mother whose baby had been kidnapped, and who opened up for the first time about her ordeal.
In 2008 after almost 20 years, Maggie Horrell broke her silence to recount every parent’s worst nightmare – the moment her five-month-old daughter Natalie was snatched.
It was a case that hit the headlines, as Natalie became the focus of a nationwide hunt which was played out night after night on the evening news.
Mrs Horrell had chosen the moment to convey a positive message after her daughter was found safe and well 200 miles away: “My Natalie was found”.
The Horrell family were at the centre of intense publicity while Natalie was missing, but decided to shun attention for two decades in a bid to give Natalie “a normal life”.
Mrs Horrell, then 53, said: “We went through hell for five days.” Natalie was snatched by a woman posing as a store detective at the Littlewoods store in Cardiff on May Bank Holiday Monday, 1988.
The five-day ordeal unfolded after the woman approached Mrs Horrell, asking her to go to see the manager because she was “owed extra change”. The woman offered to stay with the baby in the pram. It was only for a couple of minutes but it was enough for the baby to be wheeled away by her kidnapper. The child had been driven to Lancashire by the woman, who wanted a baby to save her marriage. After being found, she admitted kidnapping and was jailed for three years at Cardiff Crown Court.
DON’TMISS BRIANLEEIN FRIDAY’SECHO