Infant still missing from KnightsenKNIGHTSEN -- A 4-month-old girl was reported missing from her home here early Sunday morning, sparking a major search throughout the neighborhood and beyond.
The mother of Ramy Amadea Gallego said she put her daughter to bed about 10 p.m. Saturday but when she checked on her around 6 a.m. the infant had disappeared from her bassinet, according to Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office.
The child was reported missing around 6:20 a.m., Lee said.
Asked why the parents waited 20 minutes to report the baby missing, sheriff's Capt. Steve Warne said only that officials are looking into that aspect of the case.
He said authorities are treating the parents as witnesses and not yet calling the baby's disappearance a kidnapping.
"There's no reason to suspect foul play by anybody," Warne said.
He declined to specify whether a home alarm system was activated when the child vanished, nor whether she was in a room by herself.
Authorities had cordoned off the entrance to Tule Lane, where authorities could be seen coming and going from the family's beige, single-story home.
About 100 law enforcement officials and volunteers scoured the area on foot and all-terrain vehicles along with search dogs but hadn't found the baby by early evening.
Small groups of search-and-rescue volunteers in khaki uniforms trudged along Knightsen Avenue and Delta Road; others combed the stubble of a nearby field near the command center that has been established at Knightsen School.
Here and there, curious onlookers gathered to watch the flurry of activity, an anomaly in this quiet little Delta town where horses graze in backyards and homemade signs advertise freshly picked strawberries.
Ramy is described as white with dark hair and blue eyes, and weighing about 14 pounds.
She was wearing a one-piece zippered outfit in pastel pink, green and blue, Warne said.
The sheriff's office is working with state and federal authorities and has contacted the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Warne said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's office at (925) 646-2441.
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