Ohio baby abducted during carjacking has died, police say

Nalah Jackson and Kason, Kyair Thomass. (Credit: Columbus Police Dept)

One of the twin Ohio boys who became the center of a statewide AMBER Alert that garnered nationwide attention last month has died, authorities said.

Columbus police said officers were sent to a home shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday on a report of a baby not breathing. Medics transported the baby, who was about 6 months old, to Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

Columbus police said they were "actively investigating." WBNS-TV reports that an autopsy is scheduled Monday. No further details about the child's death were immediately available.

Columbus police identified the child as one of two boys who were the subject of an Amber Alert, used to publicize a child’s disappearance, after an idling car was taken Dec. 20 while their mother was picking up an order at a Columbus pizza restaurant.

One child was found hours later in a car carrier seat between two vehicles in a parking lot near Dayton International Airport, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) west of Columbus. Police officers in Indianapolis, which is 175 miles (282 kilometers) west of Columbus, found the other boy on the evening of Dec. 22 in an abandoned car that had been stolen three days earlier in Columbus, Ohio, authorities said.

Nalah Tamiko Jackson, 24, was arrested on kidnapping charges and was later indicted on two federal counts of kidnapping of a minor. She appeared in federal court in Columbus a week ago but did not enter a plea at that time; a message seeking comment on the charges was sent Sunday to federal public defenders representing her.