Mom’s lies spur ‘massive’ search for 4-year-old daughter after car stolen, IL cops say

An Illinois mother is accused of lying to police that her daughter was missing — and potentially abducted — spurring a “massive” search, all while the girl was safe and sound.

The search for 4-year-old Blessing Aoci began on the morning of Jan. 16 when Rock Island resident Princess Ilunga called police to report that her car had been stolen with her daughter in the back seat, McClatchy News reported.

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,” Rock Island Police Chief Tim McCloud said during a press briefing Thursday, Jan. 30. “This was such a massive undertaking.”

Ilunga told police she had loaded her daughter into the back of her car, went inside for a moment and came back outside to find it was gone, McClatchy News reported. Whoever had stolen the car had taken Blessing with them.

Officers located Ilunga’s car quickly, abandoned eight blocks from her home. But there was no sign of Blessing.

Police went door-to-door, chasing down leads and following up on tips flooding in from the community, all while neighbors scoured backyards and alleys, according to McCloud. The FBI joined in the effort as well.

Then, after 9 worrying hours, Blessing “suddenly showed up to the back door of her residence unharmed, showing no signs of distress or even having been out in cold temperatures,” McCloud said.

There was a “collective sigh of relief,” he said. But the lingering question remained: Where had Blessing been?

The girl “could not provide us with an explanation,” and the girl’s family stopped cooperating with the investigation, McCloud said.

Hidden in plain sight

As investigators searched for answers, they learned they had been lied to, repeatedly and intentionally. Blessing had been in the home the entire time and, at some points, right in front of them.

“From the moment the 911 call was made, our officers were lied to with the only thing being true is that the car had been stolen after she had left it running,” McCloud said.

Though Blessing was at the home, Ilunga hid her identity from investigators, referring to her only by her Swahili name and saying she was a different daughter.

Ilunga didn’t provide officers with pictures of Blessing, so they had only one photo to refer to, which had been given by her school, McCloud said.

Ilunga pulled her other children into the lie as well, he said, ordering them to do as she did and to act as though Blessing was someone else, a different sibling, a sister.

She was giving these commands to her children in Swahili, then switching back to English when talking to police.

While talking with investigators, Ilunga pointed at Blessing and said, “Blessing looks just like her,” he added.

Doubling down

As the search for her daughter continued, growing in manpower and expense, Ilunga kept doubling down on her story.

“Ms. Ilunga made every attempt to hide Blessing,” McCloud said.

At one point, a detective who had been with Ilunga at her home had to briefly leave, and she seized the opportunity. According to investigators, Ilunga slipped a pink coat onto Blessing — the same coat mentioned in the Amber Alert — then led her into an alley where she was found by a citizen, bringing the search to an end.

But as police began unraveling Ilunga’s account, they reviewed body camera video from officers who spoke with Ilunga while her children were present. Everyone appears “very distraught,” “very believable,” McCloud said, but an investigator who speaks fluent Swahili watched the footage and realized Ilunga had been getting her kids to go along with the deception.

“I want to be clear, this is not just some big misunderstanding. This is not the result of a language barrier,” he said. “This was by all accounts an intentional deception that wasted the time and resources of six local law enforcement agencies, the Illinois State Police, the FBI and the federal marshals.”

Rock Island police have a warrant for Ilunga’s arrest on a charge of filing a false police report, which is a felony, McCloud said. But there’s a snag.

“As of (Thursday) morning, Ms. Ilunda’s whereabouts are unknown,” he said, adding that the entire family seems to have left.

McCloud urged anyone with information regarding Ilunda’s whereabouts to contact Rock Island police.

It’s unclear what motivated Ilunda to lie. Police believe it may have been an effort to get her car found faster, but McCloud said that’s uncertain.

Rock Island is a roughly 170-mile drive west from Chicago.

This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Mom’s lies spur ‘massive’ search for 4-year-old daughter after car stolen, IL cops say."