March 26--Long Beach police said the slaying of a baby earlier this year was part of a bizarre kidnapping plot masterminded by a woman who was trying to convince her boyfriend that she had given birth to twins.
The woman, Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian, 47, had told her boyfriend that she had given birth when in fact she had not, police said. She then plotted to kidnap a baby to pass off as her own, officials said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
D'Milian and others targeted a woman and her baby after they exited a bus in Long Beach, authorities said. They followed her home, police said, and two hours later a man stormed into the house, shooting three adults and taking the baby.
It's unclear, authorities said, why the baby was later killed and disposed of in an Imperial Beach Dumpster.
Three-week-old Eliza Delacruz was taken Jan. 3 after the man shot her parents and an uncle. The three adults survived, but the baby was found the next day in a plastic bag amid trash in a Dumpster near the Mexican border.
Long Beach police arrested D'Milian, 47, of Thousand Oaks; Anthony McCall, 29, of Vista; Todd Boudreaux, 44, of Fontana; and Charisse Shelton, 30, of Corona.
D'Milian and McCall are accused of murder, kidnapping, attempted murder and conspiracy, while Boudreaux and Shelton are accused of accessory after the fact.
All four are expected to be arraigned Friday.
Further details about the arrest were expected to be released later Wednesday. The multiple arrests come after investigators announced this month that video from local businesses and a bus revealed puzzling details about the abduction.
The infant's mother was on her way home carrying her daughter when a woman driving a dark-colored Range Rover with large black rims stopped next to her on the street and spoke with her.
It was a "basic conversation" that didn't leave the girl's mother with any suspicion that "something was going to happen" later, said Lt. Lloyd Cox.
But less than two hours later, a man walked into the Delacruz family home in the 100 block of West 51st Street, shot the baby's parents and uncle and whisked the girl away.
Police said the family was targeted.
"We still have not figured out the cause of why they were selected or why they chose to go through such a horrendous effort of shooting three individual adults and then kidnapping a child and then later murdering it," Lloyd said. "It's baffling to us."
Investigators had exhaustively searched for clues and any connection between the attackers and the victims. Nothing indicated that the family was involved in gang or drug activity and human trafficking doesn't make sense because the baby was killed, Lloyd said.
The mother was busy with routine activities the day of the kidnapping, nothing that would "draw attention," he said.
She boarded a bus with her baby the day of the attack and unbeknownst to her, the woman in the dark Range Rover was following, police said. Two security camera videos from businesses along the bus route show the SUV trailing the bus as it goes along its route.
A cause of death for Eliza has not been released. Police said they were unable to get a license plate number from the videos and have sent copies of the recordings to the FBI in Washington, D.C., for enhancement. Authorities also offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the capture and convictions of Eliza's killers.
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Times staff writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.
UPDATE
4:45 p.m.: This story was updated to include that four were arrested in connection to the infant's death and abduction.
This story was originally published at 3:35 p.m.
