A former Liverpool University student has been reunited with her baby boy after he was snatched from their home in Malaysia.
On Friday evening at 5.45pm, Sarah Joseph’s son Freddie, who is 20 months’ old, was kidnapped from the porch of their house in Kuala Lumpur.
A man burst in and snatched the toddler, and drove off in a white Toyota Camry, bearing a false registration number plate, with a female accomplice.
Sarah, who lived in Merseyside for a number of years, grabbed onto the car. Two passers-by went to her aid and they managed to pull Freddie half out of the car. The man stopped and came out of the car and threatened them with a machete before making his getaway. Sarah suffered broken bones in her foot as she was dragged along the road and a slash injury to her arm.
Sarah, who is working as a teacher in the city, launched a desperate bid to find her son with her family and friends. They set up a Facebook page and used Twitter to appeal for information.
Around 17 hours’ later Sarah was reunited with Freddie, who was found unharmed at Jalan Kuantan in Taman Tasik Titiwanga, at 1.20pm.
Passers-by saw him standing by the roadside and fed him with biscuits and drinks, before he was reunited with his mother at the Jalan Tun Razak police station. Both have been checked over in hospital.
Abena Bailey, who set up the Facebook page to find Freddie, told JMU Journalism: “Relief isn’t strong enough to describe how we feel to have Freddie back and the whole thing has felt surreal from start to finish. Obviously, it will take time before life returns to normal but they are on the road to recovery.”
Abena explained that kidnapping children is a growing problem in Malaysia, adding: “The expat cases receive a lot of media attention but not so much the local cases so it’s hard to know what the actual statistics are.”
Police have detained the former nanny of Freddie Joseph, the toddler who was abducted on Friday, and her boyfriend, in connection with the case this morning.