Texas baby reunited with parents

Margarita Chavez kisses her baby Nancy at a news conference in Abilene, Texas, on Wednesday.

ABILENE, Texas (CNN) -- About 24 hours after being snatched from her mother's minivan, a 1-month-old baby girl was reunited with her parents Wednesday evening, her mother clutching the infant and kissing her softly on the forehead as she wept.

Nancy Crystal Chavez let out a soft cry as her mother, Margarita, picked her up from a baby carrier. She peeked up at her mother, her crying giving way to contentment.

She was found earlier Wednesday about 130 miles away in Quanah, a town of about 3,000, after residents reported Paula Lynn Roach, 24, was showing off a baby she said was hers, said Hardeman County Sheriff Randy Akers.

"My family and I are very happy to have our baby back with us," father Salvador Chavez told reporters at a news conference moments later. "Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. God was with us taking care of our baby and our family."

"There's no words to explain how I feel," said Margarita Chavez. "My hopes never ended. I trusted the Lord. I was sure I was going to get my baby back."

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Ed Lavandera reports on the abduction and return of 1-month-old Nancy Crystal Chavez in Abilene, Texas (August 14) Play video

As the mother spoke, a smile spread across the infant's face and she raised a hand, touching her mother's cheek.

Margarita Chavez's face was bruised and scratched and her hands and arms bandaged from injuries she suffered as she was dragged about 40 feet across a Wal-Mart parking lot in Abilene trying to stop a woman from driving away with Nancy.

Roach was arraigned before a justice of the peace in Quanah on an aggravated kidnapping charge hours after her arrest and bond was set at $500,000. If convicted, she could face anywhere from five years to 99 years in prison.

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"[Roach] was showing the baby around town," Akers said. "She said she had it yesterday in a doctor's office in Abilene ... but it was pretty obvious the baby was older than a day old."

Among the places Roach took the baby was to her mother's workplace, a nursing home, where the two of them boasted about the child and showed her to people there, Akers said. Roach's mother has not been charged.

Around this time, authorities in Hardeman County were notified by Abilene police to be on the lookout for Roach.

It didn't take long for authorities to track Roach down. She was stopped in a four-door Chevelle, a different vehicle from the one believed to have been used in the abduction. Roach, her mother and the baby were in the vehicle, Akers said.

"They knew we had them," he told CNN. "We took the baby and we told the two of them to follow us to the police station."

Akers said the two women put up no resistance and did as they were told. Authorities then awaited word on the results of a footprint of the baby, which turned out to match that of Nancy.

Roach had lived in Quanah for about the past 10 years, but recently moved to the Abilene area, which is 185 miles west of Dallas.

According to Texas Ranger David Hullum, Roach said "she had this void she was trying to fill."

'Classic infant abduction case'

A massive search was launched after the girl disappeared and authorities quickly activated the first-ever statewide use of the "Amber Alert" missing child system.

Amber Alert is an emergency system to quickly distribute information on radio, television, the Internet and electronic traffic signs when a child under 18 is missing.

It was created in response to the murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, in 1996.

The Amber Alert generated "numerous calls and tips," said Sgt. Kim Vickers of the Abilene Police Department. "We do feel like the Amber Alert system deserves a lot of credit."

Vickers said the woman who snatched the girl was "looking for an opportunity" to kidnap a child.

Law enforcement profilers called the kidnapping -- captured by a parking lot video surveillance camera -- "a very classic infant abduction case," he said.

"The surveillance video shows this woman circling around the parking lot. We counted at least five to seven times," Vickers said. "She had been looking for an opportunity and when it afforded itself, she seized it."

Paula Lynn Roach

The video showed Margarita Chavez putting her three children -- the baby, a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old -- into their minivan late Tuesday afternoon and returning her shopping cart to a storage rack a few feet away. She was gone for just a few seconds when Nancy was taken.

Robert Gann, 13, watched the incident unfold and rushed to the car, demanding the woman stop. When she didn't, he slammed the front passenger window with his fist, breaking it.

Margarita Chavez had high praise for Gann, saying he was the first person to try to save her daughter.

Gann said it was a life-changing experience because he had been in trouble with the law before.

"It makes me feel good that everyone looks at me as a good person. Everybody always put me down, told me I wasn't going to make, I was a failure," Gann said. "Now I can stand proud."

-- CNN Correspondent Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.