Photographer drugged new mum to steal her baby girl

A US woman and her daughter have been arrested after the older woman posed as a baby photographer to gain access to a newborn girl, then drugged the mother in order to steal the infant.

38-year-old Juliette Parker and her 16-year-daughter were arrested in Pierce County, Washington, after their intended victim called for help.

In a statement posted online, Pierce County Sheriff's Department revealed that the pair had used Facebook to lure the new mum by offering baby photographs.

Parker visited her home three times, taking cellphone selfies with the child and taking care to wipe her fingerprints from items she touched around the home, police said.

On the third visit, the new mum was offered a cupcake by Parker's daughter and immediately felt unwell after eating it.

She called 911 and feeling drowsy, unstable on her feet and vomiting. She went to hospital and filed a police report, later discovering that her house keys had been stolen.

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"Basically she was drugged," Ed Troyer, the Pierce County Sheriff's spokesperson, told KOMO News. "They put drugs in a cupcake, she ate it, and they attempted to take her kid."

Troyer said that Parker planned to raise the baby as her own.

"She wanted a girl, she wanted [the baby] five weeks and younger so she could raise it herself, take it out of state and pretend it was a newborn of her own," he said.

After a police investigation, Parker and her daughter were taken into custody.

Since the arrest, other new mums have come forward to say that they were targeted by Parker.

Gabby Romias told News5 that she was going to let Parker photograph her birth.

"To think I almost let someone like that around my family ... it's really hard," she said.