A woman charged with abducting her 3-month-old daughter during a state supervised visit last week was ordered held without bail Thursday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.
Mikequera Randolph, 24, was charged earlier in the day with a felony count of aggravated kidnapping in the disappearance of her daughter on May 14 during a home visitation in the Lawndale neighborhood, according to Chicago Police.
When Randolph asked if she could say something about the case in court on Thursday, Cook County Judge Sophia Atcherson advised her to talk with her court-appointed attorney before making any statement.
“Alright, thank you, ma’am,” Randolph said.
Randolph, her daughter and the case aide usually met at a McDonald’s restaurant for their visits, but because that location was being renovated, the visitation was moved to Randolph’s mother’s apartment, prosecutors said.
A little more than an hour into the two-hour visit, something Randolph’s mother was cooking started to smoke, and Randolph took her daughter to the door of the apartment, prosecutors said. Randolph allegedly took the girl – Royalty Wolf – into the hallway outside the door, then disappeared with the child.
The caseworker looked for Randolph around the apartment and outside, but could not locate her and called 911, prosecutors said. Chicago Police and the FBI began a search for the girl.
During the nine days the girl was missing, she lacked access to either medication or medical treatment that she required, prosecutors said without providing details.
Officers used Facebook to help locate Randolph about 1:11 p.m. Wednesday in the 600 block of South Francisco, authorities said.
When police approached Randolph as she pushed the girl in a stroller, she misled them about her identification, prosecutors said. As officers talked with Randolph, she suddenly pushed the stroller toward an officer and in the direction of the street. The officer grabbed for the stroller as Randolph ran off.
Prosecutors said police used bloodhounds to track Randolph to the 2900 block of West Lexington where they found her hiding in a garage and took her into custody.
Paramedics were called and took the girl to a hospital for evaluation, police said.
A spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Child and Family Services said the girl was safe.
“All of us at DCFS and at our foster care agency, Unity Parenting, are thrilled that Royalty Wolf has been found safe,” the agency said in a statement.
The case aide who was supervising the visit has been suspended while DCFS investigates the circumstances of the girl’s disappearance, the spokeswoman said.
Randolph, of the East Garfield Park neighborhood, is expected back in court on May 30.
