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2nd kidnapping count filed in stolen baby case

ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) – Prosecutors have added a kidnapping count against a Gary woman already charged with killing a baby’s mother and trying to pass off the newborn as her own.

The Herald Bulletin reported prosecutors filed the charge Wednesday against 36-year-old Geraldine R. Jones and dropped a criminal confinement count.

Jones also faces a charge of murder and a second kidnapping count in connection with the death of 23-year-old Samantha Fleming of Anderson and the abduction of her daughter, Serenity.

Authorities allege Geraldine Jones posed as a state child welfare worker and lured Fleming to Lake County under the pretense that Fleming had a court hearing there.

Fleming’s body was found in a Gary home April 17. She had been stabbed 10 times, doused in bleach and stuffed in a plastic bin.