10-month-old girl abducted in New Mexico rescued, suspect arrested

A 10-month-old girl who was kidnapped in eastern New Mexico was located and rescued Monday, and a suspect was arrested.

Eleia Maria Torres was reported missing Friday, after her mother and another woman were found dead in a park near Clovis. Eleia’s 5-year-old sister was also critically wounded in the attack.

Police did not identify the suspect arrested Monday. Baby Eleia was “recovered out of state,” Clovis Deputy Police Chief Trevor Thron told the Eastern New Mexico News. Clovis, a city of about 38,000 people, sits 200 miles east of Albuquerque near the state border with Texas.

Authorities did not reveal any further details in how they tracked down Eleia’s captor.

At around 4:30 p.m. Friday, police responded to Ned Houk Park north of Clovis and found two women dead and a 5-year-old girl suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.

The victims were identified as Samantha Cisneros and Taryn Allen, both 23. Cisneros was the mother of the 5-year-old girl and baby Eleia. Investigators also found a baby stroller, an infant car seat and a baby bottle at the scene. The 5-year-old girl who was wounded was rushed to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, about 100 miles southeast of Clovis.

The women’s purses and other belongings were also found at the scene. Authorities quickly issued an Amber Alert for Eleia. After a weekend search, cops said she’d been found through a collaborative law enforcement effort. The FBI was the first agency to announce Eleia was safe.

“Baby Eleia has been taken to a local area hospital as a precautionary measure,” the Clovis Police Department said in a Facebook post. “We will release more details at a later time.”

With News Wire Services