IL BLESSING AOCI: Missing from Rock Island, IL - 16 Jan 2025 - Age 4 *Found Safe*

FOUND SAFE: AMBER Alert Issued After Mom’s Car Is Stolen With 4-Year-Old Girl Inside

The car was eventually found, but the child's whereabouts remain unknown

www.crimeonline.com

AMBER Alert Issued After Mom’s Car Is Stolen With 4-Year-Old Girl Inside​

An Amber Alert was issued in Illinois on Thursday for a 4-year-old girl who is missing after a car was stolen with her inside.

Blessing Aoci was reportedly in a booster seat in her mother’s car when it was stolen from an intersection in Rock Island. Police said the vehicle was found shortly thereafter, but there was no sign of Aoci, according to WLS.

Aoci’s whereabouts remain unknown. She was described as weighing 50 pounds and having black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a pink jacket, blue pants, and pink boots.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Amber Alert issued for 4-year-old girl who was inside stolen vehicle

An Amber Alert has been issued for a 4-year-old girl who authorities said was inside a vehicle that was stolen early Thursday.

www.wwnytv.com

Amber Alert issued for 4-year-old girl who was inside stolen vehicle​

An Amber Alert has been issued for a 4-year-old girl who authorities said was inside a vehicle that was stolen early Thursday.

Police Chief Tim McCloud said Blessing Aoci’s mother put her in a booster seat in the running car around 6:10 a.m. and went back to the house to get another child.

When she returned the car was gone, he said.

“It can happen in seconds,” said McCloud, adding to not put blame on the mother.

Rock Island police said in a Facebook post that the running vehicle was stolen by an unknown suspect.

Authorities found the car around 6:25 a.m., but Blessing and her booster seat were gone.

Officials believe the young girl was taken to another vehicle.

McCloud said they are searching for a white, two-door coupe Dodge Dart with the license plate EG9 2693.

Blessing is about 3 feet tall and weighs around 50 lbs. She was wearing a pink jacket, pink boots and blue pants.

Blessing is a student in their Headstart program at Rock Island Academy, according to a Rock Island-Milan schools representative.

Police said all available resources are being dedicated to finding the missing child, including assistance from surrounding agencies, door-to-door canvassing, searching using drones with heat sensors, and using security cameras and license plate readers.

McCloud said there were seven vehicles reported stolen overnight, more than usual. They do not know if any of these vehicles would have been used in the kidnapping.

The Dart was stolen out of Rock Island, but it was last seen in East Moline at 1:17 a.m.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

https://www.ourquadcities.com/news/local-news/rock-island-police-seek-missing-4-year-old-girl/?up3

Rock Island Police seek missing 4-year-old girl​

Rock Island Police Chief Tim McCloud held a news conference Thursday morning. You can watch that here:



Authorities said the primary vehicle of interest is a white Dodge Dart with Illinois license plate E69 2693.

Police also said other stolen vehicles have not been recovered yet, including a tan Chevrolet Malibu with Iowa license plate MMU 635, a grey Nissan Rogue, with Virginia plate UEV 4867, and a black Kia Sportage, stolen from Rock Island.

UPDATE: Rock Island Police Chief Tim McCloud cautioned against a public search party at a news conference Thursday morning.

UPDATE: The Rock Island Police Department posted an update to social media emphasizing that 4-year-old Blessing Aoci has not been found as of Noon.

Police say “some misinformation that some are putting out on social media” suggested that she was.

“If there are any changes in this investigation, it will come directly from from the Rock Island Police Department,” the post concluded.

 

[Kimster]

This is really scary! PLEASE find her safe!!!!!

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

4-year-old girl found safe after vehicle stolen with her in back seat: Police

Four-year-old Blessing Aoci was in the back seat of a vehicle when it was stolen early Thursday morning in Rock Island, Illinois, police said.

abcnews.go.com

4-year-old girl found safe after vehicle stolen with her in back seat: Police​

A 4-year-old girl who was in the back seat of a vehicle when it was stolen early Thursday morning has been found safe following an hourslong search, police in Illinois said.

No other details on her whereabouts were immediately released.

"Blessing has been located, she is safe, she has been reunited with her mother, and will evaluated by EMS," the police department said. "Further details will be forthcoming."

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

https://www.mystateline.com/news/5-teens-arrested-after-4-year-old-blessing-aoci-is-returned-to-her-mother/

5 teens arrested after 4-year-old Blessing Aoci is returned to her mother​

Rock Island Police arrested Jaron Bailey-Harris, 18, and four juveniles for allegedly stealing a car with a child inside.

Around 2:53 p.m., Blessing was located in the neighborhood with no sign of injury. She was immediately reunited with her mother and taken to Unity Point Trinity for evaluation.


Bailey-Harris is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle.

One 16-year-old boy is charged with kidnapping and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Another 16-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl, and a 14-year-old girl are all charged with possession of a stolen vehicle.

 

[Takeitfromme]

Kids???? Kids did this!!!!!!???? Being a former journalist in the crime and public safety genre I've seen and heard things I'll never unsee or unhear. But it still angers me....

 

[Kimster]

Kids???? Kids did this!!!!!!???? Being a former journalist in the crime and public safety genre I've seen and heard things I'll never unsee or unhear. But it still angers me....

No kidding! Every single one of them needs to be totally evaluated and sent to a correction workshop, or whatever they called those kind of classes these days.

 

[GrandmaBear]

They'd better not let them off light for being young. They KIDNAPPED. They found the car with no child or booster seat, can you imagine the mother's panic?? So they certainly KNEW they had a child. That would have been the point to call and turn yourself in. You tell them you stole a car but did not realize there was a child in there, you stay with the child and call the cops to come get the child. You don't MOVE the child.

Of course you shouldn't have been stealing a car in the first place.

This mother was at her own home in her OWN driveway. Not that that's ever safe these days either. All I can say is lock the car. It's hard when you have more than one child to get them all loaded. Many of us have been there. Same thing when you get home and more than one may be sleeping and you have to get one at a time.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Missing girl was held somewhere else all day until she was found in alley

Rock Island Police Chief Tim McCloud told TV6 on Friday that he believes Blessing Aoci was held somewhere else for hours.

www.kwqc.com

Missing girl was held somewhere else all day until she was found in alley​

After nearly nine hours a 4-year-old girl was found in an alley near her home, but police say that is not where she was all day.

Rock Island Police Chief Tim McCloud told TV6 on Friday that he believes Blessing Aoci was held somewhere else for hours.

Five people were arrested Thursday in connection to the case, and McCloud said more arrests are coming.

 

[GrandmaBear]

DUMB SH*TS. They better have kept their HANDS off of her. It is DEFINITELY kidnapping AND WITH knowledge.

 

[Takeitfromme]

I hope they are talking and in truths no lies!!!

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

What. The. Actual. Fu.....

https://www.ourquadcities.com/news/local-news/police-missing-4-year-old-blessing-aoci-was-safe-the-entire-time/

Rock Island Police: ‘Missing’ 4-year-old Blessing Aoci was safe the entire time​

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 that 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.

 

[Guess Who]

What. The. Actual. Fu.....

https://www.ourquadcities.com/news/local-news/police-missing-4-year-old-blessing-aoci-was-safe-the-entire-time/

Rock Island Police: ‘Missing’ 4-year-old Blessing Aoci was safe the entire time​

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 that 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.

So they claimed a kid was in the stolen car so it would get them looking for it? That's what it sounds like to me.

 

[GrandmaBear]

WTF??? My guess is it was not about getting the car looked for or anything like that. More likely a part of it all OR hoping to milk off it, maybe a GFM, some public attention, who the F knows...

Absolutely disgusting on mom and family's part.

However, that does NOT excuse these teen hoodlums.

I've been to Rock Island and the Quad Cities many a time. My mom's side was from there. These days there are few left sadly, Quite a few cousins and their kids but aunts and uncles are gone, I have one uncle left, he is closer to my age is why, and that's it for the older ones..

It was the rest of my family and I guess kind of a second home for me. We were down there at least annually if not more often to spend many days with my mom's side as I grew up. They were salt of the earth. My aunt and her hub had a huge farm. Their kids though went to Davenport schools...
Over my childhood there were times my mom considered telling my dad we were all going to move to where her family lived so she could be closer to her family. Believe me, my dad would have done whatever my mom wanted. We never did.

And I have thanked God for it over the years...

Major crime, huge school systems, I saw most of my cousins affected over the years. I tell my mom fairly often I am so glad we were not raised there. I saw kids of cousins affected. You name it. Dirty police department from all I ever heard, major crime and what these teens did does not surprise me one bit is my point and I am sure it is rampant with teens. Tons of minor criminals I guarantee you.

Now that has nothing to do with mom lying necessarily but just saying these kids need to also be stopped in their tracks. There is a ton of juvenile crime there. There is a ton of adult crime there.

Tons of drugs. All of it. Breasia was from Davenport if anyone recalls that case. The SO was not up to date on the registry...

When I came in I refreshed myself quickly. I see the one thing says the car was taken from an intersection, however, I always thought from mom's story, it was taken from a driveway. WHICH is it? She claimed she put her in the car and went in the house for another child and the car was taken. You aren't parked in an intersection are you?

Anyhow, just comments, and questions... You could not pay me enough to live down there. My uncle and his wife do. Many cousins still do. And their kids. They know everyone and know the good people and that helps but it is something else... You can raise a good child but put them in those school districts with all the other kids and problems and gangs and you name it... NOT GOOD.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Mom arrested after faking her 4-year-old daughter’s abduction, police say

An Illinois mom has been arrested for filing a false report after investigators say she faked the abduction of her 4-year-old daughter.

www.wsaz.com

Mom arrested after faking her 4-year-old daughter’s abduction, police say​

An Illinois mom has been arrested for filing a false report after investigators say she faked the abduction of her 4-year-old daughter.

Rock Island Police Chief Timothy McCloud said the alleged abduction of Blessing Aoci was an “intentional deception” by her mother, Princess Ilunga. Investigators said that Blessing was in her own home the entire time.


McCloud said authorities aren’t sure of the motive.


Blessing’s father, Richard Aoci, said he didn’t know about what was going on because he was in Iowa when it happened.

He told KWQC that he has doubts about the police department’s side of the story, saying he believes they may be trying to flip the story.

He said Ilunga is scared and feeling “targeted” by police.

After days of searching for the family, Ilunga and her seven children were found in Wisconsin on Jan. 31.

Her vehicle was stopped by Wisconsin State Patrol, and police said her seven children were in the vehicle.

Ilunga was arrested and taken to the Jefferson County Jail. She is awaiting extradition to Illinois, according to Rock Island police.

The children were safe and turned over to their father that evening.

As far as the stolen vehicle is concerned, police made five arrests. Any kidnapping charges have been dropped since police say Blessing was never in the car.