While hundreds of people – including FBI agents and volunteers throughout the Quad Cities – searched for a missing 4-year-old girl, she was safely in her home, according to Rock Island Police Chief Tim McCloud.

Now law enforcement officials have a new and, in many ways, a more difficult mystery to solve.

At a news conference Thursday, McCloud said 4-year-old Blessing Aoci, who was reported to be missing in an SUV that was stolen on Jan. 16, was never in any danger. City council members, police officers and an FBI agent were among those who surrounded McCloud as he spoke from a podium at the Rock Island Police Department.

McCloud said it wasn’t a misunderstanding, and that the girl’s mother speaks good English. She told a dispatcher six times that her daughter was in the stolen car.

McCloud said the girl’s mother, Princess Ilunga, claimed she was a different daughter when she was seen during a search of the house.

“Only until Blessing showed up, just remarkably unharmed and warm, that’s when it really started getting suspicious as to what happened. Our detectives worked immediately to answer the question, ‘Where had she been?’” McCloud said.

Family “perpetuated the lie several times” during the search, police said. Only after officers left the house was Blessing sent back out into the alley to be found.

Body cams support the findings. Kidnapping charges for a 16-year old boy will be dropped.

“We have tried to understand why (Ilunga) would invent this story, but when confronted with all the information, the family stopped cooperating with the investigation,” McCloud said.

McCloud said the mother faces a felony charge of filing a false report, a Class 4 felony. The last contact police had with the mother was “two or three days ago.”

“She would speak to officers in English and then instruct her other children in Swahili to take off Blessing’s pink coat and to only refer to her by her Swahili name … and to go along with the deception,” McCloud said.

The family has vanished, Our Quad Cities News crew saw no car near the home on Thursday. The windows have been covered. Three surveillance were visible on the deck.

Police ask anyone who knows the family’s location to contact Crime Stoppers at 309 762-9500. All tips are anonymous.

An early-morning abduction report

On Jan. 16, 37-year-old Ilunga called 911 shortly after 6 a.m. and reported her vehicle, which was left running, was stolen.

During the call, Ilunga told the dispatcher six times that her daughter was in the car. “It’s important to note that Ms. Ilunga speaks very good English, albeit with an accent,” McCloud said. “She is easy to understand.”

At 6:24 a.m., the stolen car was found about eight blocks away, abandoned and with no sign of Blessing.

An Amber Alert was issued, followed by a mobilization of local, state and federal law enforcement resources “on a scale not seen in my 30 years in the Quad Cities,” McCloud said. “We had upwards of 120 law enforcement officers working hundreds of man hours, joined by countless concerned citizens from around the area who walked block by block in cold temperatures, drove around in vehicles and shared information through social media.”

Searchers considered every possibility – that Blessing had been transferred to another stolen car, that she had gotten out of the stolen car and was lost, or that she had been abducted by someone else.

Throughout the day, officers responded to numerous unfounded sightings of Blessing, as well as reports of pink backpacks or pink coats left abandoned in alleys or back yards, while numerous calls for service were put on hold as all resources were diverted to the search for Blessing.

About nine hours of intensive searching, “Blessing suddenly showed up at the back door to her residence, unharmed, showing no signs of distress or even of having been out in the cold temperatures.”

She was evaluated at a hospital, McCloud said.

“Obviously, questions arose immediately, and despite the relief we all felt at her safe return, our investigators then had to begin working to answer the question where was Blessing during those nine hours?”

The little girl couldn’t provide answers, he said.

Arrests of a man and four juveniles

The sole adult suspect in the incident appeared Tuesday morning in Rock Island County Court. Jaron Bailey-Harris, 18, faces charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle, court records show.

Bailey-Harris, who has pleaded not guilty, waived his preliminary hearing. Now the case is scheduled for pretrial conferences on Feb. 27 in Rock Island County Court.

He is being held without bond in Rock Island County Jail.

A stolen car and a report of a missing child

Bailey-Harris and four juveniles were arrested in connection with the incident.

Shortly after 6 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, a brown Saturn Outlook was stolen from the 1300 block of 14½ Street, reportedly with 4-year old Blessing Aoci still in the back seat. Officers responded to the area within minutes and started a search.

About 14 minutes later, the stolen SUV was found unoccupied in the area of 8th Street and 15th Avenue. Immediately, information and a picture were posted about the missing child on the Rock Island Police Department’s Facebook page, which was shared just under 43,000 times, the release says.

Illinois State Police were contacted to issue an Amber Alert, which was later sent to cell phones by the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

A command post was established in the area of 15th Street and 15th Avenue using the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) Unified Command Post Vehicle. Officers canvassed the area for Blessing while the Rock Island and Moline police and the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Office flew drones to try to find her.

Later, search efforts focused on the blocks surrounding the area from which the car was stolen. They included voluntary searches of residences and property in “such a massive undertaking that I’ve never seen before in Rock Island,” McCloud said.

Assisting in the search were the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Department; Moline, Milan, Davenport and Illinois State police; the FBI; the U. S. Marshals Service; neighbors and volunteers. For almost nine hours, teams of law enforcement and volunteers combed the neighborhood with no sign of Blessing.

“We were all thinking of Breasia Terrell,” said McCloud. (Breasia is the 10-year-old girl who was missing from Davenport for eight months before her remains were found in a pond.)

The charge that Ilunga faces is a Class 4 felony: Filing a false police report, McCloud said. “We can only work within the confines of the laws that exist,” he said at the news conference.

Eventually Blessing, who was found in apparent good health, was transported by the Rock Island Fire Department to Unity Point Trinity for evaluation.

“Everybody is just immensely relieved,” McCloud said earlier. “You know, it was exhausting, it was emotionally exhausting — the entire process. And I can say that I hope we never go through anything like this ever again.”

In addition to Bailey-Harris, four juveniles also were arrested.

• A 16-year old boy faced charges of kidnapping and possession of a stolen vehicle. Now, McCloud said Thursday, the kidnapping charge will be dropped because of recent developments.
• A 16-year-old boy faces a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle
• A 15-year-old girl faces a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle
• A 14-year-old girl faces a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle.

“We were in direct communication with the state’s attorney’s office and Dora Villareal while this was going on. So she played an active role in this as we are presenting evidence and determining charges — and they may be amended later. But this is what we have so far,” McCloud said earlier, after Blessing had been found. “And I would say that some of the tips that were brought in — some of our leads that were generated from when we went to track down some of the other stolen vehicles — that just led us to more and more people that were involved and other charges that came as a result.”