Mother of kidnapped Nashville baby: "I need my baby back"

By Kate Howard • THE TENNESSEAN • September 30, 2009 The mother of kidnapped newborn Yair Carillo came out of the hospital in a wheelchair to tell the media about the woman who attacked her. Maria Gurrolla, 30, had swollen eyes and a long cut on her cheek. Bandages covered stab wounds on her neck, and she was wrapped in a blanket that obscured the rest of the nine stab wounds she received on Tuesday afternoon. "I was attacked by a white woman," Gurrola said in Spanish. Her cousin, Norma Rodriguez, interpreted. "I don't know the person that did that. I've never seen her before." The woman arrived at her doorstep and told her she was an immigration agent there to arrest her. Gurrolla asked the woman to identify herself. She said it was soon after that the blonde, heavyset woman pulled a knife and began to stab her. She did not tell Gurrolla she intended to take her child. Gurrolla went out of the house and to a neighbor's house for help. When they returned, the baby was gone. Gurrolla's 3-year-old daughter was unharmed. "The only thing she said was that she was going to arrest her," Rodriguez said. Gurrolla's mouth tightened when she spoke about her baby son: he has a full head of hair. He's chubby, with big cheeks and big eyes. Her own eyes appeared to tear up. He was born on Friday, and they had just come home from the hospital Monday night. "Physically, (I) feel fine," she said. "Emotionally, (I) feel sad because of what my family is going through." She was asked what she would say to the woman who attacked her and took her son. "She says for her to reflect," Rodriguez said. "She needs her baby back." Police were initially searching for a Lebanon woman who was reported as a possible suspect. She was located in upstate New York and is no longer believed to be involved or a person of interest, Metro police spokeswoman Kristin Mumford said. Gurrolla is working with a sketch artist to develop a composite of the suspect, and Youth Services detectives are retracing her steps on Tuesday to look for clues, Mumford said. She suffered nine stab wounds, many of them very deep, and a collapsed lung, said Gurrolla's doctor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, William Dutton. Gurrolla also had a complicated birth and signs of that are still visible, Dutton said. "She is in stable condition and doing well now," Dutton said. Gurrolla's only arrest history was for driving without a license about 10 years ago, Metro police said. There was no record of police calls to her south Nashville address. Her immigration status is unclear.