Mom Who Claimed Baby Emmanuel Haro Was Kidnapped While She Changed Him Is Arrested — as Child Remains Missing By Samira Asma-Sadeque

A California couple was arrested a week after their 7-month-old was reported missing by the child’s mother, who claimed an attacker hit her and kidnapped her baby from outside a store.

The infant, Emmanuel Haro, was reported missing on Aug. 14 by his mother, Rebecca Haro, who said she was attacked while changing him outside a Big 5 Store in Yucaipa, Calif., the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department previously said.

On Friday, Aug. 22, the department announced arrests of Rebecca and Jake Haro, the child’s parents, on murder charges.

The investigation began on Aug. 14 when authorities received a report of a missing child in Yucaipa, per a SBSD statement.

Rebecca previously told KTLA that on the day of the incident, she and Jake were at a local park with their three children for their son’s football practice. She drove to a Big 5 Sporting Goods store to buy her son a mouthguard and took Emmanuel with her, she told the outlet.

She parked the car and was setting up to change Emmanuel when she heard someone say “hola,” and then lost consciousness, she claimed.

When she woke up, she told the outlet, the baby was nowhere to be found. She had a black eye when she spoke to the TV station.

Her account soon began unraveling as police announced over the weekend that they had observed what they believed were inconsistencies in her stories.

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“Rebecca was confronted with inconsistencies in her initial statement and declined to continue with the interview,” the SBSD alleged in their updated statement.

As the report of Emmanuel’s disappearance spread, a past conviction of Jake’s resurfaced publicly. According to court records cited by The Orange County Register, Jake was convicted of child cruelty following the 2018 injuries on his ten-week-old daughter.

The search for Emmanuel continues.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.