Newborn kidnapped from CA Marine family in 1980. Newly created photo offers hope
A knock on a California apartment door changed everything for a Marine family the summer of 1980.
Angelina and Kevin Verville had just gotten home with their newborn son after a trip for groceries when a woman stopped by their Sterling Homes apartment complex for families stationed at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said in a June 10 news release.
The woman told the couple she was with an organization, 'HELP,' that assisted low-income military families, the nonprofit said.
Intrigued by her generosity, the couple trusted the woman.
Decades of heartache soon followed.
On a trip to the 'organization's office,' the woman drove off with the couple's 17-day-old son, Kevin Art Verville Jr., the nonprofit said.
The parents never saw their son again, according to the nonprofit.
Yet, despite the passage of time, the family's hope never wavered; his younger sister never stopped probing.
'I wanted my parents to be happy. I knew that him being taken was a dark cloud that just lingered and stayed there, and I wanted that to disappear for them,' Angelica Ramsey said in a video news release. 'I wanted them to have answers.'
So, she pushed investigators about her brother's case, and now the nonprofit has released a new age-processed photo of Verville Jr. to try to solve the case.
'Kevin Verville Jr. was taken from his mother in broad daylight by a woman posing as a social worker 45 years ago,' FBI San Diego wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'Today, Kevin could be anywhere, unaware of who he truly is.'
'Social worker' kidnaps newborn
Kevin Verville Jr. was born June 14, 1980, at Camp Pendleton, Angeline Hartmann, Director of Communications at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said in the video release.
His parents, who were married two years earlier while his father was stationed in the Philippines with the Marines, were new to the area, having recently been transferred to Southern California, Hartmann said.
'When I look at their wedding photos, when they were younger, they seemed so happy before everything happened,' Angelica Ramsey said.
But then came July 1, 1980 — the day 'Sheila,' as she called herself, knocked on the apartment door, the nonprofit said.
'She showed up before we even had a chance to put the groceries away,' Kevin Verville said in the video release. 'She said there is an opportunity for us to get Junior signed up for the program.'
'Sheila' offered his wife and their newborn son a ride to the office, he said.
'I said, 'Sure. no problem. I can put all the groceries away,'' Kevin Verville said.
On their trip, 'Sheila' stopped at a remote area in San Diego County and told Angelina Verville they were there to pick up another mother, the nonprofit said.
'When they arrived, the woman asked my mother to go knock on the door because she herself was pregnant,' Ramsey said. 'As my mom was getting out of the car, the woman drove off.'
Kevin Verville Jr. was gone.
Initial investigation
In a decades-old news clip, a KFMB reporter asks Kevin Verville what he would say to the woman accused of taking his son.
'I don't want to talk to her,' he says in the clip. 'I just want my baby.'
Angelina Verville is visibly shaken and too distraught to speak with the reporter, turning away from the camera, muttering to her husband.
In the months after the abduction, 'the San Diego FBI office became involved in the case, extensively searching for Kevin Jr. and the unknown woman,' the nonprofit said.
Investigators learned 'Sheila' had wandered about the apartment complex in the days leading to the abduction, the nonprofit said.
'Sheila' spoke with dozens of residents, searching for something, the nonprofit said.
'She appeared to be baby shopping, looking for a specific type of baby: a baby under 6 months old, and apparently one that was part Filipino,' Angeline Hartmann said in the video release.
Using information from witnesses, investigators created a sketch of the unknown woman, the nonprofit said.
'From the Vervilles' accounts, along with other residents, investigators say they're looking for a woman who was in her 20s back in 1980, with red or blond frizzy hair,' the nonprofit said.
The woman, who looked to be pregnant, also had a circle with an 'X' inside tattooed 'on her left hand in the webbing between her thumb and index finger,' the nonprofit said.
Despite investigation, few leads surfaced, and the case went cold.
'I have hope'
Now, decades later, the nonprofit said its forensic artists used family photos as inspiration to create an image of what Kevin Verville Jr., who would soon turn 45, might look like today, Angeline Hartmann said.
'It's very possible that Kevin Art Verville Jr. is out there, alive, with no idea about his real identity and we need your help to bring him home,' Hartmann said in the release. 'It's likely Kevin Jr. doesn't know what happened to him and that his biological parents are still searching for him.'
For Kevin Verville, it's a search that will never cease.
'Even if I'm gone … I want my children to be together,' he said. 'I have hope, and I just want him found.'
Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, or submit tips on its website.
Anyone with information that leads to finding 'Kevin Verville Jr., as well as the arrest and conviction of those responsible for his abduction,' could be eligible for a $10,000 reward.
Oceanside is about a 40-mile drive north from San Diego.
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