Spanaway woman, teen daughter arrested in alleged plot to steal baby, sheriff's office says

SPANAWAY, Wash. -- Authorities say a 38-year-old Spanaway woman and her 16-year-old daughter have been arrested after allegedly drugging another woman and plotting to steal an infant.

Suspect Juliette Parker, AKA Juliette Noel, Juliette Gaines. (photo courtesy Pierce County Sheriff's Office)

The Pierce County Sheriff's Office says the woman posed as a photographer and reportedly contacted the other woman on a newborn baby Facebook group and offered to take free infant photos to "build her portfolio."

During her third meeting with the woman and her daughter on Feb. 5, she was allegedly given a cupcake and immediately felt numb and drowsy after eating it, the sheriff's office said in a release.

After telling the two to leave, the sheriff's office says the victim called 911 for medical assistance.  She later told investigators she believed she had been drugged and that her house keys had been stolen.

She also told officials that she observed the woman taking selfies with her baby and "wiping her fingerprints off items she touched inside the victim's home," the sheriff's office said in a release.

Officials say that while investigating the incident they uncovered additional victims and believe the woman was planning to steal a newborn baby.

“What she was doing was trying to groom somebody to find an infant she wanted and we believe what she was going to do was take the infant and leave the state and go raise her as her own,” says Detective Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.

Troyer says she was targeting new moms with female infants under 5 weeks old.

The suspect and her daughter were arrested Friday afternoon at a home on 220th Street E.

The sheriff's office is continuing to search for additional victims in this case. They are asking anyone who was contacted by a woman who posed as a photographer and went by the names Juliette Parker, Juliette Noel or Juliette Gains to contact them at 253-798-7724.

Investigators say the woman whose keys were stolen has since had new locks and window guards installed at her home.