JACKSON, Miss. – A 5-month-old baby girl was kidnapped at gunpoint Saturday morning near Mantachie in northeast Mississippi's Itawamba County.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert following the kidnapping, which happened around 11:30 a.m. The FBI and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation joined the search Saturday afternoon.
Authorities consider the child to be in danger and said the kidnapping suspects could be headed to Atlanta. Itawamba County sits on the border with Alabama and is near the Tennesseee state line as well.
Click here to read updates at MyFoxBirmingham.com.
The child, Madison Erickson, was taken at gunpoint during a home invasion. Lt. Wes Luckey of the highway patrol said three people entered Erickson's home wearing masks and took the baby. He said it appears the kidnappers were strangers to the family.
Troopers are looking for a gold Pontiac Sunfire with the Tishomingo County license plate 383-TSV. A news release said the car was occupied by a man, two women and the baby. All are white.
The baby has brown hair and brown eyes and weighs about 13 pounds. A picture of Madison has been put on the national Amber Alert site, www.amberalert.gov.
The Amber Alert was just the fourth issued by the state since the program began in 2002, and the second in a week.
An alert issued last Sunday led to the arrest of Brittany Alvarez, 21, and her boyfriend Samuel Crispin, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador. Authorities said Alvarez kidnapped her four children from their grandmother July 14 in Marion County in southern Mississippi.
She was arrested in Tennessee a day later shortly after the alert was issued.
Authorities ask anyone with information to call the Itawamba County Sheriff's Office at (662) 862-3401 or troopers at (866) 262-3775 or ..47 by cell phone
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