A 10-month-old girl in upstate New York died Sunday afternoon hours after being kidnapped.
Halo Branton, who would have been 11 months old on Thursday, was pronounced dead at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, according to police.
Halo was reported missing around 11 p.m. Saturday from a home in the city’s Bellevue neighborhood, Schenectady police officer Ryan Macherone said at a press conference. Officers responded to the scene and began searching for the baby girl.
Around 10 a.m. Sunday, an Amber Alert was issued for Halo. It said she was last seen at 9:15 p.m. Saturday wearing a light pink shirt and white sweatpants with flowers on them. She also had a Minnie Mouse blanket.
Searchers located the infant on Sunday afternoon. She was found in a shed on the massive General Electric campus in Schenectady, sources told the Albany Times-Union. Macherone did not confirm where Halo had been located.
First responders immediately rushed the little girl to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
New York State Police initially posted online that Halo had been found “safe and in good health” but later edited their posts.
The investigation began as a missing person case but is now a criminal investigation, according to Macherone. No one had been arrested as of Sunday evening.
“We’re interviewing multiple people,” he said. “We asked for the public’s assistance, and we have received it.”
