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Interview with Pam Percival

Aired August 14, 2002 - 14:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A baby is being footprinted in north Texas to see if she is Nancy Chavez, abducted from the parking lot of an Abilene Wal-Mart. Police found the baby in a car just like the one little Nancy was whisked away in yesterday. The crime was caught on surveillance tape.
And with us now on the telephone is Pam Percival. She is with the Abilene Public Information Center. She is an officer there. Pam, what can you can tell us about Abilene police officers? Are they en route to this north Texas town of Quanah where the baby is?

PAM PERCIVAL, ABILENE PUBLIC INFORMATION CENTER: Yes, they are right now.

LIN: All right. And what are they planning on doing once they get there?

PERCIVAL: Well, they -- let me just kind of bring you up to date briefly. Earlier this morning, our police officers responded to information from law enforcement officers there in Quanah, Texas indicating that they had a potential suspect in yesterday's kidnapping, and they followed up on that information, and have dispatched a team of officers to Quanah, including a forensics team in an attempt to confirm that the child there is or is not the baby that was abducted from Abilene, and they took with them the baby's certified footprint from her birth certificate record to help identify that baby if it is indeed Nancy Crystal Chavez.

LIN: So your officers are going to be the ones who actually make that positive identification?

PERCIVAL: Well, and as I said, they are working with a team of law enforcement officers, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Rangers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and many other agencies. It is a team effort, but our officers have gone. They do have the birth certificate, and will be working to that goal.

LIN: All right. What are your officers hearing about this woman, who she is, the circumstances under which she was stopped by authorities up in Quanah?

PERCIVAL: Well, I have to say that I am not at liberty to disclose that information at this time. I will tell you that the baby's parents, Margarita (ph) and Salvador Chavez are here in Abilene at our Abilene Law Enforcement Center waiting with our Abilene Police Department officers to learn whether this baby is indeed theirs.

LIN: Pam, how are they doing? How are they doing?

PERCIVAL: Well, you can imagine, and you know, our officers are with them and have been with them, and are taking care of them, and if that baby is their daughter, she will be returned to her parents here in Abilene at the Law Enforcement Center.

LIN: All right. Thank you very much, Pam Percival with the Abilene Public Information Office. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that this is, in fact, the missing 1-month-old baby.

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