For more than 12 hours Thursday, Elizabeth Grisby could only assume the worst.
Her daughter, 1-year-old Royalty, had been taken during an early morning car theft while the single mother and DoorDash driver was delivering food. First came the news that the vehicle was located, but Royalty was not inside.
Then, hours later, a 14-year-old suspect was in police custody. Still no baby.
“At first, I was in a bad place, but then when they said they had found her, I was ecstatic,” Grisby said Friday afternoon, her child tucked safely in her arms as she addressed reporters outside DeKalb County police headquarters.
The Stone Mountain mother likened the moment she first locked eyes on Royalty after Thursday’s harrowing ordeal to giving birth. She saw her daughter, safe and well after being dropped off on a porch on Stoneleigh Hill Road, and it was like they were meeting again for the first time.
“It was a moment of joy,” Grisby said.
JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Investigators still don’t know what transpired in the hours between Royalty’s 2 a.m. kidnapping and her reunion with her mother shortly before 3:30 p.m. Officers were on their way to pick up the sole suspect, Malachi Richardson, on the other side of town when a passerby saw someone drop off the baby and heard her crying.
No accomplices had been identified Friday. Richardson, charged with kidnapping and theft by taking, is in the Metro Regional Youth Detention Center.
For Grisby, the night began as any other. She tucked a sleeping Royalty into her car seat and began taking food delivery orders. Since losing her job to the pandemic, the former server has been working nights so she can stay home with her daughter during the day.
A distraught Grisby, 39, retraced her steps for reporters Thursday morning, pleading with those responsible for Royalty’s kidnapping to leave her somewhere safe.
She left the car running to make a delivery, but kept the key fob in her pocket. She did not lock the doors. Her back was turned. And suddenly someone was driving her SUV down Harvest Dale Court with her baby still inside.
“The next thing I knew, I see my truck going down the street,” Grisby said Friday, adding she would not resume nighttime deliveries. “I’m not doing anything at night anymore. I have to be aware and see my surroundings.”
DeKalb County police Chief Mirtha Ramos thanked the police officers, state and federal agencies and government leaders who worked tirelessly to find the child. She said investigators were looking to identify others involved and “hold them to task.”
JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Since news broke about the 18-month-old’s abduction, the chief said she and Grisby had been overwhelmed by support from the community for the single mother. A GoFundMe account established for the family had nearly doubled its $2,500 goal, and donations were still pouring in.
“Just an example of DeKalb County and the world that we live in today,” Ramos said. “There is beauty. We can’t give up hope.”
