Woman Pretending to Need Directions Lures Mother Into Car, Abducts Newborn

Bryan Dos Santos Gomes was just a month old when a woman approached his mother in Fort Myers, Florida, and claimed she was lost.

Photo by Gaurav Kumar on Unsplash

On December 1, 2006, Maria Ramos Dos Santos took her four-week-old son, Bryan Dos Santos Gomes, to a doctor’s appointment in Fort Myers, Florida. She was accompanied by her friend Janice Duarte, whose infant daughter also had an appointment.

Once they were done at the doctor’s office, the women walked to a nearby bus stop. While they waited, a Hispanic woman in a dark vehicle approached them and asked for directions to the Pine Manor neighborhood. She explained that she was from Tampa and was having trouble finding her mother’s home. Maria and Janice told her they couldn’t help, and moments later, they boarded a bus.

When they got off the bus, the same woman approached them again. This time, they got into her car and showed her to Pine Manor.

While they were driving through the neighborhood, the woman said she saw her mother’s car and began heading back to drop off the women and their infants. At some point, she stopped and let Janice and her daughter out. But when Maria tried to get out with Bryan, the woman pulled out a knife and threatened her to stay still. As Janice screamed for help, the woman sped away.