By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-02-02 04:48:16 | Updated at 2025-02-02 08:03:45
3 hours ago
The 'abduction' of a four-year-old girl in Illinois was discovered to be a hoax orchestrated by her mother after police discovered the child at the home.
Princess Ilunga, 37, called 911 to report that her car had been stolen outside her Rock Island home with her daughter Blessing Aoci still inside.
In a scheme in which police have since referred to as 'an intentional deception', Blessing was never 'missing' and was instead discovered to be safe.
'From the moment the 911 call was made, our officers were lied to, with the only thing being true was that the car had been stolen after she left it running,' Rock Island Police Chief Timothy McCloud said at a press conference on Thursday.
'This was, by all accounts, an intentional deception that wasted the time and resources of six local law enforcement agencies, the Illinois State Police, the FBI and the US Marshals,' he added. 'She made every effort to hide the girl from us.'
Ilunga was arrested in Wisconsin early Thursday evening and taken to Jefferson County Jail where she is awaiting extradition back to Illinois, QC News reported.
The bizarre case began in the early morning hours of January 16 when Ilunga called 911 to report her young daughter missing, KWQC News reported.
At around 6am, the mother reported that she had put her young daughter in her car seat before running back into the house to grab her other six children. During that short window of time, she claimed that her vehicle had been stolen.
Princess Ilunga, 37, of Rock Island, Illinois, was arrested on Thursday for filing a false police report after she orchestrated a hoax claiming that her daughter was abducted when she was actually safe and sound at the home
On January 16, four-year-old Blessing Aoci was reported to be inside the family car that was stolen from outside the home
Rock Island Police Chief Timothy McCloud called the bizarre hoax 'an intentional deception'
According to police, Ilunga reiterated six times that her daughter was in the stolen car after she called police to report an abduction at around 6am January 16
According to police, Ilunga reiterated six times that her daughter was in the stolen car. McCloud also added that it was 'easy to understand' the mother as she spoke 'very good English, albeit with an accent.'
Just 17 minutes after the report, police found the car eight blocks from the home with Blessing nowhere to be found.
'We considered every possibility; that she had been transferred to another stolen car, that she had gotten out of the stolen car and was now lost, or the nightmare scenario that she had been abducted by someone else,' McCloud said.
The discovery prompted the Rock Island County Police to issue an AMBER Alert for the four-year-old girl as extensive search efforts began to unfold.
Police had to get a photo of Blessing from her school after her mother surprisingly told officers that she couldn't provide them with one herself.
At first, Ilunga didn't allow police inside to search her home. When officers were finally permitted access, the mother claimed that a young girl in the room, who was later discovered to be Blessing, was a different daughter named Baraka.
'Ms. Ilunga actually pointed to "Baraka" and said that Blessing looks just like her sister,' McCloud said.
'Additionally, Ms. Ilunga advised officers not to speak with the daughter that she referred to as Baraka because she was too young and did not speak very well.'
Although the car, which was actually stolen, was found 17 minutes after the report was filed, Blessing was nowhere to be found inside of the vehicle
The discovery of the car led police officers to issue an AMBER alert for the four-year-old child
Six local law enforcement agencies, the Illinois State Police, the FBI and the US Marshals were all involved in the extensive search efforts
Residents of the neighborhood were also captured searching for Blessing along with officers
During this time, Ilunga, who was speaking to officers in English but Swahili to her family, told her children to remove the girl's pink coat and to only refer to her by Baraka.
As multiple agencies searched for blessing, a detective was assigned to stay at the home with the mother, according to McCloud.
After nearly nine hours of search efforts - a process in which McCloud said to be a massive undertaking that he had never seen before in Rock Island - Blessing was found safe in an alley behind her home just before 3pm.
Officers were immediately suspicious of the outcome when Blessing turned up safe with no signs of distress or exposure to the cold. Nevertheless, she was taken to the hospital for evaluation.
'Our victim was only four years old, and reportedly just suffered through a very traumatic event,' McCloud said. 'Unfortunately, Blessing could not provide us with an explanation as to where she had been.
'Despite the relief that we all felt at her safe return, our investigators then had to begin working to answer the question - where was Blessing during those nine hours?'
The hoax began to unravel later on in the investigation when police were combing through hours of body camera footage.
An officer in the department who spoke fluent Swahili was able to determine that the mother had been deceiving the police since the very beginning.
At first, Ilunga didn't allow officers to search her home. When they were able to gain access, it was later discovered that Blessing was right inside the home as they searched around
After nearly nine hours of extensive search efforts, Blessing was found safe in an alley behind her home
Officers were immediately suspicious of the outcome when Blessing turned up safe with no signs of distress or exposure to the cold
According to McCloud, Ilunga was instructing her other children to go along with the lie.
'This is not just a big misunderstanding. This is not the result of a language barrier,' McCloud said. 'From the minute our first responding officer arrived, Ms. Ilunga could have told the truth.'
When the detective assigned to the home ran back to the station a few hours into the search, the mother used the opportunity to put Blessing back in her pink coat.
From there, Ilunga put her daughter out to the alley where she was then 'found' safe and sound by two women.
'We have tried to understand why she would invent this story, but when confronted with all the information, the family stopped cooperating with the investigation,' McCloud said.
Five teenagers were ultimately arrested on the day Blessing was reported missing in connection to the case. Although the kidnapping charges will be dropped, the teens will still be prosecuted for stealing the car.
Jaron Bailey-Harris, 18, was arrested and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle, Fox 19 reported.
The other arrests included two 16-year-old boys, a 15-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl. All of the teens have been charged with possession of a stolen vehicle.
The hoax began to unravel later on in the investigation when police were combing through hours of body camera footage with the help of an officer in the department that spoke fluent Swahili. He discovered that the mother had told her children to go along with the lie
On January 30, Wisconsin State Patrol pulled over Ilunga for a suspended registration and an equipment violation and took her into custody
Richard Aoci, Blessing's father, told KWQC News that he had no idea what was going on since he was in Iowa at the time but he has reservations regarding the police department's side of the story
Jaron Bailey-Harris, 18, was arrested and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle along with four additional underage teens
Police said that the motive into the hoax is unclear, other than the possibility that Ilunga thought by reporting an abduction, her car would be found faster.
'That's the only thing we can think of that's plausible at this point,' McCloud said. 'But since they won't give us a statement, I think only they are going to be able to answer that question.'
After being confronted, Ilunga along with her seven children vanished. The failure to locate their whereabouts led police to issue an arrest warrant for the mother on charges of filing a false police report - a Class A felony.
Richard Aoci, Blessing's father, told KWQC News that he had no idea what was going on since he was in Iowa at the time, but said that he had spoken to Ilunga after the family vanished. He believed that she was still somewhere in the area.
However, he said that he had reservations regarding the police department's side of the story. He said he believed that they may be trying to 'flip' what happened which had left Ilunga scared and feeling 'targeted' by the officers.
On January 30, Wisconsin State Patrol pulled over Ilunga for a suspended registration and an equipment violation, QC News reported.
The mother was taken into custody on the outstanding warrant. Her seven children, who were also in the vehicle, were taken to the Lake Mills Police Department.
At around 10pm that same night, Aoci took custody of the children.
