A former Colorado mayoral candidate is accused of a despicable crime — attempting a kidnapping. Juliette Parker, who ran for mayor in Colorado Springs in 2019, allegedly drugged a new mother and attempted to steal her newborn baby. The 38-years-old was arrested and charged, but has since been released on bail.
Parker, the former mayoral candidate, is accused of posing as a newborn photographer in an effort to conduct a kidnapping in Washington state. She reportedly put out a call to new moms on Facebook advertising her photography services. In the post, she asked if she could photograph a newborn baby and said she would do it free of charge because she was trying to build up her portfolio.
Then, she reportedly put her bizarre plan into action. One of the women who responded to the advertisement said Parker came to her home three times to photograph her newborn, eventually drugging her and attempting to steal her infant.
It's an unsettling story, but the silver lining is that she wasn't successful. The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said in a statement that it appears there is ample evidence that shows she was trying to kidnap the baby. “The suspect was observed taking cell phone selfies with the victim’s baby and was seen wiping her fingerprints off items she touched inside the victim’s home,” it read.
It seemed Parker was trying to establish some trust with the mother whose baby she was photographing. It was her third visit to the home when the attempted kidnapping took place. It happened on February 5.
Parker’s 16-year-old daughter came with her that time. She offered the victim a cupcake, who said as soon as she ate it, she began feeling it. The victim says she asked Parker and her daughter to leave, then called 911, telling first responders that she believed she had been drugged. She also reported that her house keys were stolen.
Luckily, Parker did not get away with the baby. But it's certainly alarming and should make moms think twice before trusting someone based off of a Facebook post. Many other moms said Parker had contacted them and had even set up appointments to photograph their babies.
Parker was specific in that she wanted a baby under 5 weeks old and that it had to be a girl. Other mothers said that she turned them down because they had a boy and she wasn't interested in photographing a boy. The elaborate plan seemed to have many layers and was very specific.
Authorities said the evidence they collected shows that Parker wanted to kidnap a baby to raise her as her own. Victoria Morris, a woman who recently gave birth to a baby girl, was another woman who was almost a victim of Parker's. Victoria said Parker had come over to her home to take photos of her before she gave birth.
“She seemed off, but not like something that was alarming that I would have sent her away,” she said. “But she did do some odd things when she was here. When she came in the front door, she used her sleeve to open the door and she came in and she wouldn’t even sit in an actual chair. She sat on the floor.”
On Valentine's Day, Morris had sent Parker a message to let her know she had given birth. She wanted to meet up for a newborn photo shoot. That's when she heard the news of Parker’s arrest and was completely floored.
“I just started crying and panicking. I looked out my hospital window and I could see the jail where she was being held,” she told the local station. It is absolutely terrifying to think about what could've happened had Parker not been caught in the act before she got away with someone's baby.
Ed Troyer is a detective with the Pierce County Police Department. He said at least a dozen women have contacted authorities to say that Parker came to their homes to take photos of their babies in recent weeks. It seems like Parker was doing lots of research, trying to find the baby the she most wanted to take as her own.
