Story of foster child’s kidnapping under scrutiny
Her foster girl is gone. Her sense of safety is shattered. Her story is under suspicion.
All Marisol Losoya wants now is her daughter returned and her life back to normal, the way it was before Sunday night when, she told police, a masked couple held her at gunpoint and snatched 3-year-old Carla Espinosa-Alvarez from her home.
"I feel like everything happened to me, and it seems like I don't have any backup," she said Wednesday. "I don't have nobody on my side. ... I don't feel like nobody is there to protect me."
On Monday, Carla was found unharmed in Mexico with her biological mother, Mexican national Maria Espinosa-Alvarez. Soon after, sources said, Espinosa-Alvarez told authorities that the kidnapping was a hoax and that she had paid Losoya to willingly return Carla, a U.S. citizen, to Mexico.
North Las Vegas police have been investigating those claims, sources said, and have not named any suspects.
Losoya said she doesn't think police believe her story, and she vehemently denied Espinosa-Alvarez's allegations.
"She's in Mexico. She can say whatever she wants. It's (expletive)," Losoya said. "How much she pay me? Where's the money? I want to know, where's the money?
"The only thing I can tell you right now, I don't feel trusted by anybody, and I've not been given any help."
Officer Chrissie Coon, a police spokeswoman, said detectives were investigating the circumstances of the girl's disappearance. "We're looking at all possibilities," she said.
On Sunday, Losoya told police that a masked couple tricked their way into her home near Commerce Street and Lone Mountain Road. Once inside the two-story house on the 100 block of Rosa Rosales Court, Losoya told investigators, the man held her at gunpoint while the woman searched the house, found Carla and carried her away.
No one was hurt, but the incident terrified her and her family, Losoya said. Because of the stress, her father had a heart attack, she said.
Losoya said she thinks people working for Espinosa-Alvarez were behind the abduction and worries they could come back.
"This lady knows where I live. She knows where my family lives and has all my information," she said. "It's very dangerous for me right now. It's dangerous for my family."
Espinosa-Alvarez was involved in an international custody battle for Carla and had threatened to take her daughter from the foster home.
The custody dispute arose after Espinosa-Alvarez left her daughter with friends in Las Vegas and went to Mexico to attend to some affairs. When she tried to return to Las Vegas, she was denied entry into the country, sources said. Authorities did not know whether Espinosa-Alvarez was initially in the United States legally or illegally.
Clark County Department of Family Services took the girl from the mother's friends in October because they were not legal guardians. No charges were filed against the mother or the friends, and the girl was placed in foster care.
Espinosa-Alvarez had been working with a lawyer and the Mexican consulate in Las Vegas since November to resolve the custody issue in Family Court, consulate official Octavio Perales Sanchez said. Carla has no known father, he said.
Family Services placed Carla at Losoya's home shortly after they took the girl into custody.
"She's been my daughter almost eight months," Losoya said. "She didn't want to go back to Mexico. She will cry and say, 'I don't want to go back, my mom is mean.' ... She would always say that."
Carla's status is unknown. Although the girl is a legal ward of Clark County, she remains with her biological mother. The outcome of the case probably will hinge on whether North Las Vegas police link Espinosa-Alvarez to the kidnapping.
Coon said detectives will make a decision based on the evidence, which could take several days.
"In these cases, you look at everything and take nothing at face value," she said.
Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.
