On December 3, 1983, Eleanor Williams, then 18, along with her infant daughter, April Nicole Williams, was waiting to board a bus at a Trailways bus terminal in Washington D.C. Mother and daughter were traveling from Suffolk, Virginia to Junction City, Kansas and had a three-hour layover in D.C.
While sitting in the terminal, a woman approached Eleanor and offered to hold April so Eleanor could get a break. The young mother accepted. The woman called herself Latoya.
“She was holding my baby and telling me how pretty she was,” said Eleanor the day after her baby’s abduction in 1983. “And then she said she was going to get a soda and she took my baby with her. Before I could get her, she went running.”
In 2018, Eleanor told The Washington Post a slightly different story.
LaToya had been holding April for a few minutes when she told Eleanor the baby needed a diaper change. LaToya offered to take April to the women’s restroom.
“She said: ‘Oh, I’ll take her to the bathroom. You look tired.’ And I was skeptical, like, “Well ok, I guess.’ Because I was tired. And I thought about it, but I had already said ok, and she had already got up and taken her to the bathroom.
“And then, I don’t know, about 10 minutes later, when she didn’t come back, I started getting nervous.”
“She went to change her and I never saw them again.”
After Latoya snatched April, Eleanor ran to her bus to see if the woman and baby were there, but there was no sign of either one. She then told a policeman at the bus station that someone stole her baby.
Authorities searched the area around the bus terminal and put April’s picture on T.V.
Police described Latoya as 23-25 years old, 5’3″ and slim with red, braided hair.
Witnesses reported seeing a woman with a baby get off a bus at the county line just hours after April was taken. Despite a large search and composite of the kidnapper, the woman who called herself “Latoya” and April Nicole Williams have never been seen again.
On September 27, 1984, Eleanor Williams gave birth to another girl she named Ashley, and Eleanor eventually had a son.
True Crime Diva’s Thoughts
I’m a little confused by the different versions of the abduction. In early reports up to a year or so after the abduction, Eleanor always said Latoya took the baby to get a soda and then ran off. But in 2018 she said something else entirely. Those are two different versions of what happened.
Personally, I would never have let a stranger hold my baby. Two weeks after my oldest child was born, I flew to Phoenix, just the two of us. My then-husband was already out there. I held her at both airports and the entire time on the plane. If someone had asked me to hold her, I would have told him or her no. It’s common sense. No stranger should be asking to hold your baby!
Five months after April was abducted, Eleanor took down April’s picture that she kept by the television, saying it was too painful to look at. I just find that strange. I can understand years later, but months? Maybe I’m just skeptical of everything. Can’t imagine why. 😉
Witnesses said they saw a woman with a baby getting off a bus at the county line, but this could literally have been anyone. If Latoya was a real human being, someone out there knows where April is, and I believe she could be alive but does not know she is and that she was kidnapped.
Maybe Latoya had recently lost a child of her own. Or maybe she stole the baby to sell.
Sources
- “Mother Still Hoping For Return of Baby Stolen From Bus Station.” Daily Press. May 4, 1984.
- “Search Continues for Kidnapped Infant.” Daily Press. December 4, 1983.
- Sizemore, John. “Police Have No Leads On Baby.” Daily Press. December 14, 1983.