From Staff Reports
The Picayune Item
PICAYUNE —
Picayune resident Jessica Hebert has been charged with kidnapping a child who lives in Iberia Parish, Louisiana for whom she was caring but refused to return to the parent.
According to a release from the Iberia Parish (La.) Sheriff’s Department, 47-year-old Hebert, of 25 Panther Circle, Picayune, was to look after the 4-year-old child for a night and return the child the next day.
Hebert was visiting friends in Iberia Parish on Jan. 16, when the mother allowed the four-year-old to go to Picayune to stay with Hebert but with the understanding the child would be returned the next day, the release states.
However the mother of the child was arrested during the child’s visit with Hebert on a warrant for an unknown charge with the Delcambre Police Department, incarcerated and released on Jan. 18, the release states. After she was released, she contacted Hebert to have her child returned to her, but Hebert refused to bring the child back, the release states.
On Jan. 19, the mother contacted the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department, which in turn contacted Hebert at her Picayune home. The release states Hebert also refused to turn the child over to the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department when the department contacted her, prompting the department to secure an arrest warrant for Hebert.
Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department personnel contacted the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department, which assisted in serving the warrant at Hebert’s home to recover the child on Jan. 19, the release states.
The child was placed in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Children and Family Services until Jan. 20, when Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department Juvenile Division personnel could pick up the child, the release states. The child was subsequently returned to the mother in New Iberia, La., the release states.
Hebert is housed in the Pearl River County correctional facility in Millard and awaits extradition to Iberia Parish where she will face a simple kidnapping charge.
