Abduction case of 2-month-old Hagerstown boy moved to circuit court

Two area women have been charged in the March abduction of a 2-month-old Hagerstown boy who was found a day later in Washington, D.C., according to court records.

Tianna Mona Dawkins, 29, of Hagerstown, and Sarah Dean Green, 41, were both charged Thursday through criminal information filings with abducting and harboring a baby, known as Zori. Green was listed as having a Frederick, Md., address when first charged in Washington County District Court in March and later filed a change of address, listing a Sabillasville, Md., address.

The charge of abducting and harboring a child under 12 comes with a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison, according to court records.

The criminal information filing moves the cases to Washington County Circuit Court, while their initial cases in District Court were closed. In District Court, Dawkins also had been charged originally with kidnapping a child under 16 and home invasion, according to court records. Green also had been charged originally with abducting a child under 12.

Dawkins was released from the Washington County Detention Center on her own recognizance on April 13 with the condition she stay away from Zori and his mother, according to court records.

Bond was posted for Green in late March, according to online court records.

Baby goes missing

According to the charging documents, the child's mother flagged down a Hagerstown police officer at 5:16 a.m. on March 8 at Franklin and Prospect streets.

She told the officer she left the baby with a male acquaintance in an apartment in the 200 block of West Franklin Street. But the child was not at the apartment when she returned.

The mother said another woman told her Dawkins had taken the child, according to the documents. Later during the investigation, that woman told an investigator she accompanied Dawkins to the apartment, and Dawkins took the baby.

The male acquaintance told police the mother "never actually asked him to watch Zori while she was out," the documents state.

He said he left the apartment "for a little while." When he returned, he went up the rear steps. As he did, "he observed Dawkins coming out of the apartment with Zori in her arms," the document states.

"He didn't think anything of it at first," the document states, because Dawkins and the child's mother knew each other, and because Dawkins at one point had been involved in the baby's life.

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Baby found in D.C.

Detectives continued to interview others in an effort to find the child.

They also filed an emergency situation disclosure with the provider of Dawkins' cellphone. The information was sent to Maryland State Police to analyze.

The cellphone data confirmed the device was near the 200 block of West Franklin Street when the alleged abduction took place, the court documents state.

The device was tracked to a residence in the 3000 block of East Capitol Street NE in Washington, D.C. A check with law enforcement databases and information confirmed Dawkins had family members living in that area.

Still on March 8, the day of the abduction, the Metropolitan Police Department contacted the apartment complex's security agent to review surveillance camera footage. Video footage showed Dawkins, a white female driver and another woman entering the building with the white female carrying a baby believed to be Zori through the entrance hallway, court records state.

The next morning at 10:41, the Metropolitan Police's Child Exploitation & Human Trafficking Task Force found Dawkins walking back to the apartment building and took her into custody without incident, according to court records.

An apartment was searched and baby Zori was found in the care of the white female driver, who was identified as Green, court records state. The suspect vehicle, a silver Nissan Sentra with a Maryland plate, was registered to Green.

Dawkins allegedly told detectives Green was the driver who took her to two Hagerstown addresses, including the apartment in the 200 block of West Franklin Street where baby Zori lived, court records state. Dawkins also said that after she took the baby from the home, Green drove her and the baby to a third Hagerstown address for a brief time before taking them to the D.C. apartment building.

The FBI also helped with the investigation, Lt. Rebecca Fetchu, spokeswoman for the Hagerstown Police Department, has said.

The day the baby was recovered, he was placed in the custody of a child protective services unit in Washington. But Fetchu wrote at the time that she understood the baby would be transferred to child protective services in Washington County.

A family member also had told police she would be able to care for the baby when he was found, court records state.