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LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Surveillance video released Wednesday deepened the mystery surrounding the kidnapping and killing of a 3-week-old California girl earlier this year.
The video shows a woman in a black Range Rover SUV closely following a bus carrying the baby and her mother, Long Beach police Lt. Lloyd Cox said.
The woman stopped the mother and spoke to her about her infant after they got off the bus on Jan. 3.
Less than two hours later, the baby was kidnapped from her home by a gun-toting man who shot the baby's mother, father and uncle.
The baby was found dead the following day in a trash bin in Imperial Beach, a town near the Mexican border some 120 miles south of her Long Beach home.
Police have not determined a motive and have no indication the family was in any kind of trouble, Cox said.
"We've looked at narcotics, we've looked at human trafficking, we've looked at all kinds of things to see if there's any indication as to why somebody would pick this family," he said. "They went through a significant amount of effort and violence to take one 3-week-old baby. ... Why?"
The death was ruled a homicide, but details from the autopsy have been withheld because of the ongoing investigation.
The girl's parents and uncle were critically injured, but once they recovered the mother recalled her encounter with the woman, Cox said.
Detectives scanned hours of surveillance video from the bus and determined the woman in the SUV had tailed it from the moment the mother and child boarded, even pulling over behind the bus at each stop, he said. Police do not think the baby's father and uncle were followed that day.
Cameras did not capture a license plate, however, and the FBI is assisting to see if the images can be enhanced.
A $25,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to any arrests.
The family was moved to a different location Wednesday to protect them as police released the new information. Cox declined to say if the family had been under police protection since the shootings.
The names of the baby's parents and uncle have also not been released for their safety.
"They know where they live, obviously," Cox said. "Somebody may want to silence them further. They've tried to kill them once already and they killed their child."
Detectives are working with Range Rover and other dealerships to determine the car's model year and were going door-to-door contacting drivers in the area with that type of car.
"We can't just sit back and wait," Cox said. "We're hoping that they're local and we may get something."
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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Police say a woman driving a black Range Rover SUV followed a bus being ridden by a mother and her infant less than two hours before the baby's parents and uncle were shot in their home and the child was kidnapped.
Long Beach police Lt. Lloyd Cox said Wednesday that surveillance cameras caught the woman tailing the bus.
The woman also spoke with the mother briefly about her 3-week-old daughter after she got off the bus.
Cox says the video deepens the mystery into the violent crime on Jan. 3.
Police say less than two hours later, a man burst into the home where the infant lived and shot her parents and uncle before kidnapping her.
Her body was found Jan. 4 in a trash bin in Imperial Beach, California.
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