Kidnapping suspect told boyfriend she adopted baby

Written by Kate Howard, The Tennessean

For weeks, Tammy Silas had been preparing for the arrival of a baby.

She bought bags of clothes, sizes 0-3 months, and a Sesame Street diaper bag. She put a bassinet next to her bed. She bought a bathtub small enough for a newborn.

Her boyfriend, Martin Rodriguez Guerrero, said what he believes was a lifelong dream of Silas, 39, was fulfilled on Tuesday when they brought home a newborn baby with a full head of dark hair and chubby cheeks.

They decided to name him Martin Jr.

"He was in good shape, he didn't cry much," Guerrero said through a translator. "He ate lots of milk. Everything was fine."

The illusion was dashed on Friday night, when eight or 10 officers came through the front door of their Ardmore, Ala., home with their guns drawn and put them both in handcuffs.

They laid the baby on a blanket that's still on Guerrero's kitchen floor, and stripped off the tan overalls Silas had put him in that said "Mommy Loves Me." They looked for birthmarks to ensure that Martin Jr. was really Yair Carrillo, abducted at 4 days old.

Guerrero says he had no idea the baby was kidnapped from a South Nashville home on Tuesday, and the mother brutally stabbed.

He says he thought his girlfriend of two years had legally adopted the baby in Texas. Guerrero said he spoke with federal investigators Friday night and told them what he knew.

He said he hasn't done anything wrong and doesn't expect he will face any charges.

Inside their home on the Alabama side of State Line Road in Ardmore, baby clothes and police-issue blue gloves are scattered through the kitchen. A pan on the kitchen stove still had uneaten pork chops in it; baby formula and a bottle were still on the counter.

Now, he's worried - not about Silas but about his truck payments, and the bills for the house. Silas could face up to life in prison.

"How am I going to pay for all this without her income?" he said.

Silas is being held in federal custody in Alabama on a charge of kidnapping. Police believe she told Maria Gurrola she was an immigration agent to get inside her East Ridge Drive home.

Authorities say she stabbed Gurrola eight times, leaving her with a collapsed lung and serious wounds, then left with the baby.

Investigators were able to analyze surveillance video that showed a rental car following Gurrola on Tuesday morning with enough detail to make out a license plate number. They followed the trail that led to Silas, and FBI agents saw her walking into her home with a bundle in her arms Friday night.

Neighbors surprised

Neighbors in the small town straddling the Tennessee-Alabama line said Silas and Guerrero mostly kept to themselves, but there was no sign of trouble at the brick and vinyl-siding home that they'd recently built an addition onto.

Silas was born and raised in Texas, Guerrero said, and they moved in together in Alabama two years ago. They worked at the same remodeling company - Guerrero in construction, and Silas translating for the workers and setting up jobs.

Silas was arrested once in Nashville for a parole violation but that was later dismissed, Metro police said, and she has an active warrant from California on a drug-related charge.

Guerrero said Silas has no history of violence that he knows of, but he believes the police are impartial. If they say she posed as an immigration agent, stabbed a woman and took her baby, he has no reason not to believe it. Things seemed fine from Tuesday until Friday, he said.

Rosie Higginbotham, who lives a few doors down and across State Line Road, said she has spoken with the couple in passing and left flyers on their door inviting them to church but they never came.

She had been looking for the couple this week to talk about their dog getting out of the yard. "There was no sign they'd been there all week," she said.

Next door, young mom Jayla Chandler said Silas seemed like a friendly enough lady. But when she heard the news, she was scared - she just gave birth in August, and she remembers Silas casually bringing over the mail when her baby's birth certificate got put in her mailbox by mistake. "I didn't think nothing else about it then," Chandler said. "Now it scares me."

The town was buzzing with the news that the kidnapping they'd heard about on the national news networks had ties to Ardmore, but there was one question that stood out above the rest in the small town.

"Who is she and where did she come from?" said Mildred Mitchell, who runs Blondie's Beauty Shop downtown.

"Nobody knew who she was, where she lived, anything. My customers were telling me there were roadblocks into town (Friday night). I guess they were looking for her."