Suspected Kidnapper: 'I'm on a Money Mission'

The 22-year-old Marietta woman accused of driving off with an Acworth mother's car and 8-month-old son strapped inside may have been motived by money.

"I'm on a money mission," Samantha Barrett said on her Facebook page a few hours after Kristyn Howard pleaded for her child's return on the social networking site, posting to Barrett's page, "I just want my baby," reports WSB-TV.

The child, William Kaidyn Stover, was in the backseat of his mom's car around midnight Tuesday when Barrett, 22, allegedly stole the car from a Commanche Drive home in Acworth, according to the Bartow County Sheriff's Office.

"I went inside and grabbed a lighter—I was going to take my friend to the store—and I come back outside and the car is gone," Howard said, according to Fox's Atlanta station.

Before the alleged kidnapping and car theft, Barrett, Howard and the child had gone to several houses in the Acworth area and possibly a store, Bartow County Sheriff's Office Jonathan Rogers said, noting Barrett is related to neither the mother nor child. 

Authorities issued an early-morning media alert for the missing baby and a Levi's Call, Georgia's Amber Alert, some 12 hours later. 

Within hours of the nationwide notice that triggered cell phone alarms and flashing messages on highway signs, Kaidyn would be on his way back home.

Henry County police said a motorist called 911 about 1:30 p.m. to report she had seen the gray 2003 Ford Taurus referenced in the Levi's Call traveling southbound on Interstate 75 in Clayton County, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Georgia State Patrol troopers were called in to handle the pursuit that resulted, spokesman Gordy Wright said in an email. 

Police had tried to pull over Barrett, but she allegedly fled on I-75, reaching speeds up to 100 mph, through Butts County, where police used stop sticks to slow her down, according to the AJC and WSB-TV.

Barrett got off the interstate near Georgia Highway 36 and drove about a mile before the chase would end near Peterbilt in Lamar County, Wright said.

Lamar County Sheriff’s deputy Sgt. Christopher Webster said Barrett rammed a patrol car in pursuit of her, and although the trooper inside was trying to avoid any collision, the cars made contact, reports the AJC. 

Barrett was driving on three flat tires when the chase ended along a dirt road near the Peterbilt truck plant in Lamar County, Wright said. Troopers used a slow-speed PIT Maneuver to stop the Taurus.

After the car left the road and crashed into an embankment, Barrett allegedly tried to flee on foot.

"I think what I heard is when she hit this pole," witness Nancy Turner, who lives near Barnesville, told WSB-TV. "It made a big boom sound. She was already was out of the car and was running toward my house. She was almost at my front door and three officers tagged her, put her in handcuffs."

Kaidyn, who was not crying when police pulled him from the back seat, was returned to his mother Wednesday afternoon, the AJC reports. The child was found in good condition and not hurt, Rogers said.

Barrett was turned over to local authorities to face charges related to the chase, according to the GSP. 

She'll face felony charges in Bartow County, which include kidnapping and theft of a motor vehicle, Rogers told Cartersville Patch.

Authorities aren't sure why Barrett allegedly took the child from his mother. Rogers said investigators would try to determine a possible motive by interviewing Barrett when she returns to Bartow County.

Barrett's criminal record includes a 2009 arrest on a possession of methamphetamine charge in Bartow, and Cobb County records indicate she was recently in jail for two weeks on a probation violation, according to published reports.

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