Mom Accused of Faking Daughter's Kidnapping, Leaving Baby in Cold Car

The child was left in a freezing cold car, but was not hurt, police said.

A New Britain, Conn., mother was arrested Friday, accused of falsely reporting an assault and the kidnapping of her 8-month-old daughter.

Leah M. Nichols called police around 2 a.m. on Friday to report that someone had broken through her door, hit in the head until she lost consciousness and kidnapped her daughter, police said.

Police soon found Nichols’ daughter in the back seat of a car parked in the lot of her Lawlor Street residence.

Three windows were broken, the temperature was around 9 degrees and the little girl was wearing just a onesie one layer of clothes and was wrapped in a blanket, according to police.

Police had responded to the house about an hour earlier when the windows had been reported broken, so they determined the longest the child could have been in the car was around 55 minutes.

Police said Nichols, 30, was upset with the child’s father, told him that the child was kidnapped. The boyfriend then came home and called police, according to the department.

Police said they determined that there was no intruder, no assault and no kidnapping. Nichols was the one to place the child in the car, police said.

The child was not hurt and was in good health, but was taken to the hospital for an examination, police said.

Nichols was charged with risk of injury; falsely reporting and incident; and criminal attempted manslaughter.

She is being held on $200,000 bond and she is due back in court on Jan. 22.

 

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