In 2011, TikToker Angelique (@angeliquemonet0) was expecting her first baby ahead of her senior year of high school. Being a pregnant teen is difficult enough without having to deal with all that Angelique went through.
She is a survivor of attempted fetal abduction. Another girl tried to cut Angelique open and steal her unborn baby.
Angelique was living in a small town in Arizona, so she didn’t really know anyone else in her situation. As a result, her pregnancy journey was quite lonely.
But then, a friend introduced her to another pregnant teen named Kassandra. They met in a group setting and really hit it off. However, they never hung out after that and simply kept in touch through text and social media.
Angelique’s husband also met Kassandra and encouraged Angelique to invite her to their baby shower. Kassandra told her that she wouldn’t be able to make it to the party, but she still wanted to give her some baby shower gifts.
“I was befriended and picked based off the fact that I was one of the only pregnant women in my town, and that was how I was specifically chosen,” said Angelique.
“Now, my perpetrator got close to me and stalked me for months, and then, when I got closer to my due date, which happened to be around my baby shower, she told me that she could not come. But the way that she got to my house was by telling me that she had baby shower gifts that she wanted to give to me.”
When Kassandra came over to Angelique’s house, where she lived with her parents, Angelique started to feel a little uneasy. It seemed like Kassandra was trying to mimic her life. Angelique thought that maybe she just wanted friends and someone to relate to.
Eventually, Kassandra left the room to take a phone call. That was when Angelique’s mom took her teen brother to football practice, leaving the two girls at home alone.
Kassandra presented the baby shower gifts. Nothing had tags on it, and they smelled like men’s cologne, but Angelique thanked her anyway.
For the final gift, Kassandra wanted to give it to Angelique in the dark because it was a type of light that shone on the ceiling. She instructed Angelique to turn and around close her eyes while she dug through a bag in the dark.
Angelique started to get a weird feeling. Kassandra’s phone rang, and she began speaking to someone in Spanish. Angelique then left the room so Kassandra could try on some outfits. She claimed that her husband was taking her to meet his family, and she didn’t have anything to wear.
There was a small candle in Angelique’s room, and when Kassandra emerged from her room, Angelique realized she smelled smoke.
Kassandra ushered her back out to try on more clothes. The next time Angelique opened the door, her whole closet was in flames. She panicked and called her friend, telling him to call 911.
The police found two large kitchen knives and a pair of scissors in Kassandra’s bag. They also confirmed that Kassandra was not actually pregnant.
“She did try to kill me and perform a C-section on me,” said Angelique. “She also set my house on fire to burn my body with all the evidence.”
“She did not succeed. I am here. I’m alive. My intuition, my gut feeling something told me what was going to happen, and I was able to be a couple steps ahead of her.”
According to Angelique, her case of fetal abduction is different from many others because Kassandra hadn’t been planning to pass Angelique’s baby off as her own, as many perpetrators of this crime do.
Instead, there was a trafficking plan to sell her baby across the border to someone in Mexico. Kassandra had been working with a gang, and it seemed like they had done this before.
Kassandra was released from custody in August 2019. Due to a procedural error, she could only be legally held responsible for the arson. Angelique’s son, Ryland, is now 15 years old, and she has told him all about what happened with Kassandra.
Now, she is using her social media platform to raise awareness for fetal abduction and advocate for other victims of this crime.
“I want to so badly make sure that women understand how vulnerable and what a risk it is with you being pregnant,” said Angelique.
“The number one cause of death in the U.S. for pregnant women is homicide. Let that sink in. Be safe. Listen to your intuition. Listen to that gut feeling.”
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By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
