Woman Carjacked on Rural Highway Leaves Infant Alone, Suspect Arrested
A 36-year-old woman was forced from her car on the Murray Valley Highway after a man flagged her down; the attacker drove off with a seven-month-old baby inside, who was later found by a passerby.
Around 11.10 am on Wednesday, a 36-year-old driver traveling the Murray Valley Highway near the Victoria-NSW border stopped after a 51-year-old man signaled for help. She exited her Holden Commodore to aid him, but a confrontation broke out and the man fled with the car, which contained her seven-month-old baby. A passerby soon found the infant on the roadside, and emergency services reunited the mother with her child; the woman suffered only minor injuries.
Police recovered the abandoned vehicle in bushland roughly 12 km from the scene. The suspect was apprehended several hours later and charged with carjacking, bail violations, child stealing and unlawful assault, and will appear before Mildura Magistrates' Court on December 2.
