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Baby left in cold visits the city two years after his kidnapping
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · June 23, 2016
Nearly 2 1/2 years after the kidnapped newborn survived 29 hours in freezing temperatures, Kayden Powell returned to West Branch Saturday and, just like before, a herd of news outlets clamored to see him.
Now a toddler, he and mother Brianna Marshall arrived Saturday morning to hear West Branch Police Chief Mike Horihan, who found Kayden in a grey tote box beside several recycle bins outside BP-Quizno’s, talk about the abduction.
Horihan and former WBPD Ofc. Alex Koch, the latter of whom arrested Kayden’s aunt and kidnapper, Kristen Smith, spoke Saturday morning at the Hoover Library-Museum in an event called “CSI West Branch.” The two explained how police procedure and evidence-gathering helped locate the newborn, whom Smith, knowing police were closing in, packed in the box at the BP before driving to the Kum ‘N Go to wave down Koch and convince him she did not take the baby.
Kayden’s birthday was Feb. 1, 2014. He was kidnapped four days later, left in the cold Feb. 6 and found Feb. 7.
The museum in April opened its newest exhibit, “Ain’t Misbehavin’: The World of the Gangster,” and Director Thomas Schwartz on Saturday presented an overview of another national headline-grabbing kidnapping, from Herbert Hoover’s presidency, that of Charles Lindbergh Jr. The 20-month-old toddler was a son of the famed Charles Lindbergh, who made the first solo transatlantic flight in 1927.
The Lindbergh baby was kidnapped from his home in March 1932. His body was found two months later less than five miles from the home, his skull crushed.
Hoover had established the Wickersham Commission in May 1929 to make law enforcement techniques “more professional,” Schwartz said. Among those new techniques were handwriting analysis and tracking ransom money through serial numbers, which finally led to the arrest of Bruno Richard Hauptmann in September 1934. Hauptmann was executed by the electric chair.
The case eventually led to the creation of the Lindbergh law. While baby Lindbergh was not taken across state lines, the Lindbergh law made it a federal offense to do so. It was that law that brought federal charges against Kayden’s kidnapper in 2014.
In introducing Horihan, Schwartz stated that, in Kayden Powell’s case, there was a “much happier ending.”
Horihan explained how interviews with family members in Beloit, Wis., where the kidnapping took place, narrowed the list of likely suspects to Smith. Police called Smith’s cell phone and she said she was on Interstate 80 near West Branch, Iowa. Horihan further stated how video surveillance of the BP parking lot, fingerprints on the tote box and baby items in Smith’s car built the case against the aunt.
However, Smith refused to admit she knew the location of the infant, even as temperatures outside dropped between 15 to 17 degrees below zero, Koch said.
Federal, state and local law enforcement began a massive search of the route between Beloit, Wis., and West Branch, Iowa. Horihan and Koch took the BP station here. And 29 hours after Koch had arrested Smith on an unrelated warrant out of Texas, Horihan cracked open the top of the tote and heard Kayden’s cries.
Kayden, sitting Saturday in the audience with his mother, shouted, “This is me — baby!” when Horihan posted a picture on the screen from soon after when the baby was placed in an ambulance.
Koch, who now works for the Cedar County Sheriff’s Department, said Smith was a convincing actress when he first met her at the Kum ‘N Go.
“She was trying to play us,” Horihan said in agreement.
Horihan said he remains amazed that Smith managed to pack Kayden in blankets and close the lid in such a way that the infant had enough air to breathe, but not too much that he froze.
“It’s still surprising that child survived that long,” he said.
The 2-year, 4-month-old toddler climbed up to the stage and began wiggling and fiddling around Horihan near the end of the officer’s comments.
“I should turn it over to Kayden now,” he joked.
WBPD Ofc. Cathy Steen stepped up to the stage to talk more about crime scene investigation techniques, though most of the audience — including reporters from five TV stations and three newspapers — had their eyes and cameras on Kayden.
Talking with the media afterward, Marshall said the night of the kidnapping “felt like someone was stabbing me in the chest,” and she worried most about Kayden’s well-being.
“The feeling of not knowing if he’s OK” was the worst part, she said, and she lost hope. “I was in worse-case scenarios. … I didn’t want to be there.”
After police found Kayden, Smith confessed.
Marshall said she was “very joyful” when she saw the photograph police sent by text message back to Wisconsin.
Asked if she thought fate played a part in Kayden’s survival, Marshall said yes.
“There’s a reason …” she said.
A jury found Smith guilty and, in October 2014, a judge sentenced her to 25 years in federal prison.
Marshall said she has “made my peace” with the ordeal, yet has not talked to her half-sister since the court case.
Kayden is still too young to understand, Marshall said, but she plans to tell him about the kidnapping when he is old enough.
Marshall said she does not fully trust people, though she tries to give them “a fair shot” with her son. However, she finds herself “more appreciative” of law enforcement than before.
After the event at the Hoover Library-Museum, the West Branch officers, Marshall and Kayden drove up to the BP station to see where Kayden was found.
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