A mother speaks out about the attempted abduction of her daughter
The little girl who was subjected to an attempted abduction is still traumatized, says her mother, Christy.
“She grinds her teeth in her sleep – something she has never done before – and she’s afraid to go to the bathroom by herself,” Christy told Annandale Today.
At about 4 a.m. on June 15, a man broke into their ground-floor apartment at the Wedgewood on Little River Turnpike in Annandale and attempted to abduct Christy’s four-year-old daughter, Faith.
Police arrested Hyrum Baquedano-Rodriguez, 24, the next day and charged him with burglary of an occupied dwelling and attempted abduction of a juvenile.
Since the incident, Christy, a single mom, says, “I can’t sleep. I have to move out of this complex.”
Her child’s godmother, Kesha Menefee Adams, posted a GoFundMe page seeking donations to help Christy and her family move to a safer apartment. They need help with moving expenses, a security deposit, and the first month’s rent.
Related story: Man arrested for attempted child abduction
Christy and her daughter share a room, so on the night of the attempted abduction, a strange man entered their bedroom and picked up the sleeping child.
“She woke up and started screaming,” Christy recalls. When Christy woke up, she heard the blinds on a living room window slam and rattle as the man escaped through the same window he used to break into the apartment. The window had been partially open as the air conditioning wasn’t working.
The child was on the floor. When Christy asked her what happened, “she said, ‘he grabbed me to the living room. It was a big boy.’”
Christy’s two older sons also live in the apartment but one was at work that night and the other was sound asleep.
Christy called 911 immediately. Police scoured the area but didn’t find the suspect. The next day, forensic detectives spent seven hours in the apartment looking for fingerprints, she says. They eventually found one on the window, which led them to Baquedano-Rodriguez.
He had been arrested several times before. Last July, he was arrested for a burglary at a business on Little River Turnpike in Annandale.
Christy didn’t know Baquedano-Rodriguez but her son had seen him in the neighborhood. She believes he was one of several homeless people squatting or doing drugs in an abandoned bathroom in her building.
She complained to the property maintenance office several times after her laptop was stolen. They put a cheap lock on the door, she says, but people have continued to break in.
“My impression is this gentleman has been watching us for a while,” she says.
According to a report by Fox5, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) described Baquedano-Rodriguez, who is from Honduras, as an “unlawfully present noncitizen.” He was first encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in Yuma, Ariz., in 2018.
The report says Baquedano-Rodriguez was arrested four times in Fairfax County – in November 2021, July 2022, November 2022, and February 2023 – and each time he was released by the Adult Detention Center despite detainers from ICE seeking to start deportation procedures. ICE issued another detainer on June 24.
That is too bad for the family. The ffx police did not list it as an attempt abduction in the weekly crime report. My neighbor told me about this last night. She thought it had happened at the Fairmont garden apartments. Our yards back up against the Wedgwood Apts. 🥺
One would think that even liberal Fairfax County law enforcement officials would protect their citizens from an “unlawfully present noncitizen” when he continues to break our laws and threaten our citizens. Shouldn’t there be a threshold of arrests that would cause Fa. Co. to release this threat to ICE? Four arrests in less than 2 years seems like a good threshold, particularly when attempted child abduction is the fourth one.
This liberal Fairfax County citizen would strongly prefer that someone tattoo “pedofilo” across the center of this scumbag’s face and launch his hindquarters into the sea. If he’s lucky, he’ll drown before the sharks get to him.
Yet that’s not how you voted.
I agree, if the BOS wanted a sanctuary jurisdiction that could at least help the more vulnerable woman and children that would be one thing. Instead, they decided to go full-on, and refuse to do any work with ICE, even if it’s a known criminal.
Maybe they should have deported the man a long time ago and he wouldn’t have been around to almost kidnap a young girl.
So, now that ICE has put another detainer on this unlawful present non-citizen, when will Fairfax County actually turn him over to ICE and do what they should have done long ago. He should have been deported. I thought the government is supposed to protect its citizens from illegals exactly like this creep.
Does anyone know the nationality or citizenship of the victim(s)? I want to make sure they aren’t worthy of xenophobia as well, before I post.
Anyone illegal should be deported. With no borders there is no country. I like our country.
Unfortunately deportation only works until they come back into the U.S., but seems like a good idea in this case.
Maybe we need to build especially secure low income housing for women with children under 12 to protect them better.