NJ woman faces GR kidnapping charge

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A 26-year-old woman from New Jersey is facing kidnapping charges after a 3-year-old special needs girl was dropped off at the family's old house in Grand Rapids.

The January 14 incident began when the girl, a student at Ridgemoor Park Early Childhood School, was supposed to be dropped off at the family's new home near 36th and Kalamazoo. Instead, the bus driver took her to their old home off Camelot SE.

At that address, Marian Moussa convinced the bus driver to let her take the girl after -- the girl's family said -- she showed the bus driver both a Michigan and a New Jersey driver's license.

School officials said her name was a close match to a list of people allowed to take the girl. So the driver released the girl to Moussa.

When the girl didn't arrive home, her parents called the police and the school.

Knowing the woman showed the bus driver a New Jersey driver's license, the girl's father said officers identified Moussa through the New Jersey plate on her car.

Police found Moussa and the girl in a parking lot near Fulton and Cascade Road, her father said.

The girl's father told 24 Hour News 8 Moussa lives in an apartment near his old address, but he'd never seen her before.

The girl was not harmed.

As for how the girl was given to an unapproved adult, GRPS spokesman John Helmholdt said, "This individual misrepresented themselves to the point where they got through the process and procedures."

He added, "There may have been a communication breakdown" that took her to her previous address. "But that's under investigation."

But Moussa faces charges of kidnapping, resisting arrest and marijuana possession.

Moussa, whose Facebook page says she is a Cooley Law School student, was scheduled to be in court on Friday for a preliminary exam to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to trial. That procedure was postponed.

Investigators are saying very little about the case and court documents related to the investigation have been suppressed.

24 Hour News 8 will continue to follow this story.