California IN BRIEF : SAN JOSE : Dispatcher Helps Solve Kidnaping

An alert police dispatcher helped reunite a kidnaped 4-day-old girl with her mother after the dispatcher noticed that the description of a missing woman matched that of a suspect in the kidnaping. Norma Frances Mancera, 30, was arrested about four hours after an intruder beat Lisa Marie Weidenhofer, 24, and ran off with Weidenhofer’s newborn daughter. San Jose police booked Mancera for investigation of attempted homicide and kidnaping. “It’s a happy ending,” San Jose police spokeswoman Veronica Damon said. “The last piece of this puzzle is how she targeted this family and how she got in.” Mancera at first told police the baby was her own. Police said Weidenhofer recognized the baby and burst into tears when they were reunited. Weidenhofer told police that she heard a noise in the bedroom and was confronted by a woman who beat her and fled. When the mother returned to the living room, the baby was gone.