A Facebook friendship between two Free State women took a dramatic turn when an arrangement to exchange a newborn baby led to a false kidnapping charge.
Police spokesperson Captain Loraine Earle says the 46-year-old woman from Bultfontein was arrested for defeating the ends of justice and opening a false case of kidnapping in Thabong.
She says that two years ago, the woman became Facebook friends with a 24-year-old woman who gave her newborn child to her, only to reclaim him two years later.
On Sunday, the 46-year-old woman who had been raising the boy, opened a kidnapping case in Thabong.
Captain Earle says, upon investigation, they found no evidence of a kidnapping as the biological mother went to the house to fetch her child.
A case of perjury and opening a false kidnapping case was opened against her.
It was further established that the biological mother then fraudulently registered her child at Home Affairs using the ID Document of the Bultfontein woman.
Both of them will now face additional charges of fraud and human trafficking.
The child is currently in the care of Puthaditjhaba Social Services.
