Missing 6-week-old baby Shamali found safe in SW Houston apartment

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - HPD officials confirm that 6-week-old Shamali Flores has been found in a SW Houston apartment. "She appears unharmed and is being check at an area hospital as a precaution." Baby Shamali has been missing since Monday when her mom, Carolina Flores was discovered stabbed to death at her North Houston apartment. 

During a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, HPD Chief Art Acevedo said the person who abducted six-week-old Shamali Flores from the home where the infant's mother, Carolina Flores was found stabbed may be a woman who is claiming the baby as her own.

Although the missing child's father, identified on Wednesday as 34-year-old Marcos Mariano Thomas Palacios, has been cooperating in the case and told police that he was not involved in the murder, Chief Acevedo added, “I can’t say 100 percent we’re gonna clear him.” Palacios was initially identified as Thomas Bernardez.

The FBI has deployed its Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team to search for Shamali Flores.

HPD homicide division conducted an investigation of the apartment unit on Goodson Drive near Imperial Valley Drive in northeast Houston and checked the front door for finger prints on Wednesday.

An Amber Alert was issued on Tuesday evening for Shamali Flores, described as 30 inches tall and weighing 20 pounds. She is believed to be Honduran and possibly black or mixed race origin.

When the alert was issued, law enforcement officers believed that she might have been with her father, but he was later found in his vehicle in San Antonio without the girl. That vehicle was also initially listed in the alert.

Anyone with information about the missing child is encouraged to contact the Houston Police Department by phone at 713-308-3600.