She’s charged with kidnapping her own baby. This is why authorities took the newborn

A woman accused of smuggling her own infant out of the hospital in a duffel bag to keep the child away from CPS had tested “positive for meth during child birth,” according to the Merced Police Department.

Stephanie L. Belden has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and child endangerment in connection with the Oct. 17 incident at Mercy Medical Center in Merced.

According to police reports, Belden was told earlier that day that Merced County Child Protective Services had taken legal custody of her newborn son after test results confirmed Belden had used methamphetamine while pregnant. About four hours later, police say, the 35-year-old mother “pried ... the umbilical tag off of the baby’s umbilical cord” and stuffed the day-old infant into a duffel bag and sneaked out of the hospital.

Within five minutes of the child’s disappearance, hospital authorities put the hospital on lockdown and alerted police.

Police went to Belden’s home on I Street where they found the child on the bed, unharmed. Belden was “hiding under a pile of clothes in the closet,” according to reports.

Investigators were told CPS decided to take custody of the child due to the failed drug test and a history of domestic violence involving the child’s parents and violations of court orders, according to police reports.

Police said Belden was told multiple times she was not allowed to take the child from the hospital and said “she would be able to hold onto the baby until she was discharged.”

Belden denied using methamphetamine, saying she had been cleaning her house before going into labor and “must have contacted amphetamine on a napkin or on garbage around the house that she was cleaning up,” according to reports.

Investigators said removing the infant’s umbilical tag “could have” caused bleeding from the child’s belly button “and ultimately possibly caused the baby to bleed to death.”

“Taking the baby out of the hospital before (medical) clearance was also potentially harmful to the baby as well,” detectives said in the report.

Belden has a lengthy criminal history in Merced County dating back to at least 2013 with numerous drug-related and theft cases, according to court records.

She is due back in court Wednesday. She remains in custody in Merced County without bail.

This story was originally published October 23, 2017 at 4:42 PM with the headline "She’s charged with kidnapping her own baby. This is why authorities took the newborn."