MUNCIE, Indiana — A Muncie, Indiana exterminator has been accused of trying to steal a 3-week-old baby from her mother after an elaborate fake pregnancy.

Judith Ann Walker is alleged to have entered a mother's home under the guise of her exterminator business, Affordable Pest Control, then attempted to strangle the victim with a cord, while demanding the baby.

The victim was a former customer, and Walker had apparently been casing the house for weeks when she noticed the baby in the home on a previous house call, according to the Indianapolis Star.

Police said the mother fought off Walker and then ran into the backyard to call for help. Walker escaped, and was later found in the nearby town of Anderson, police said.

Police said she first drove to the victim's house last month to do an extermination job. That was when she would have first seen the customer's infant.

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Walker appeared to have been planning the kidnapping for some time, casing the home of a former customer for her exterminator business, and even trying to convice people she had become pregnant.

"She did tell people she was expecting or had already received a baby," said Muncie Police Lt. Steve Cox.

It was all to make it seem the stolen baby was her own.

"(Walker) Tried to physically change her appearance, "Cox said. "Try to make it look like she was pregnant at different times."

Walker wore a harness that gave her a fake baby belly.

Walker was arrested over the weekend and held under investigation of attempted murder, criminal confinement with a deadly weapon, battery with a deadly weapon and strangulation.