New Leads In Abducted FL Infant Case

FORT MYERS, FL — Police on Thursday say new leads may show a newborn baby who was kidnapped nearly 20 years ago from Florida could be living in another state.

Bryan Dos Santos Gomes, who was kidnapped at 28 days old on Dec. 1, 2006 from Fort Myers, could be living in Washington State, Fort Myers Police said.

Gomes was abducted after a woman driving a dark-colored SUV approached Gomes' mother and asked for directions, police said.

The woman, who has not been identified, forced the mother out of her vehicle at knifepoint and fled from the scene with Gomes, police said.

"Bryan has not been seen since," police said in a brief news release.

Gomes may not be aware of what happened to him as an infant, police said.

Though police said the new leads could show Gomes lives in Washington State, "investigators are not ruling anything out and want to remind the public that Baby Bryan or the woman believed to have abducted him could be anywhere."

What Happened?

Gomes' mother was identified as Maria Ramos Dos Santos in an April 2025 report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Santos, a friend and their babies were coming from a doctor's office when the woman approached them, according to the report.

The woman reportedly said she was from Tampa and needed directions to nearby Pine Manor, where she claimed her mother lived.

She had a car seat and a diaper bag in her vehicle, and she claimed to have given birth to a newborn named Jose Guadalupe via c-section days prior, according to the report.

Santos and her friend told the woman they were unable to assist her before getting on a bus to go home, according to the NCMEC. The woman started following them, according to the organization.

Later, when Santos and her friend got off of the bus with their babies, the woman reportedly re-approached the group and asked for help a second time.

Santos and the others got into the woman's vehicle and told the woman how to get to Pine Manor, the NCMEC reported. When they arrived at the neighborhood, the woman claimed to have seen her mother's car and began driving Santos and the others back to where they were.

The woman stopped to let them out. Santos' friend and her daughter got out of the vehicle first; but, the woman pulled out a knife and forced Santos and Gomes to stay in the vehicle before driving away from the scene, the NCMEC reported, citing detectives.

“I was so nervous,” Santos said in the report. “I screamed to (my friend), ‘She has a knife. She is crazy.’”

The friend called for help, and someone passing by notified 911.

However, the woman drove Santos and Gomes about 15 miles to an Estero church parking lot, where the woman forced Santos out of the vehicle at knifepoint, the NCMEC reported.

“I yelled, ‘Take me home, take me home,’” Santos said in the report. “Give me Bryan. Let me take Bryan.”

The woman drove off with Gomes, who was never seen again, the NCMEC reported.

Since then, new evidence has arose in the case and a forensic artist has generated a sketch to depict Gomes at 18-years-old.

Additionally, the woman's voice was heard on a voicemail she left on a business line using Santos' friend's phone, the NCMEC reported. She claimed she was calling her mother, but authorities said she actually called Griffin Industries and left a voicemail on the company line, the NCMEC reported.

Authorities were hoping someone could recognize her voice on the message. (The NCMEC has shared the voicemail here.)

The woman could have possibly known someone at Griffin Industries, according to the report.

Santos' clothes and her friend's cell phone were submitted as evidence, according to the report.

The woman was in her late 20s at the time of the suspected kidnapping, and she drove a late 1990s black SUV, according to the report. The SUV may have been a Ford Explorer.

The woman claimed her husband was a trucker who worked in Dallas, Texas, according to the report.

The NCMEC stated a grandmother reported being approached by a woman while she was with her grandson. The grandmother reportedly declined to get inside the vehicle but later reported the encounter after learning of Gomes' disappearance from the news.

“He’s going to come home,” Santos said in the NCMEC report. “Some people tell me he died, but I am his mom and I say no. He is not dead and every day I look. One day he come home.”

Police asked anyone with information on the case to call FMPD, (239) 321-7700, or NCMEC, 1 (800) 843-5678.