LEWISTON – Two Connecticut women were indicted Thursday, accused of taking a 6-month-old girl away from a relative in Lewiston two weeks ago.

Dolleen Sofianos, 48, the child’s grandmother, and Yvonne Hatt, 23, the child’s aunt, were each indicted on a charge of criminal restraint.

Police said the women came to Lewiston on Nov. 26 with the intent of taking the child away from her mother, who they claimed was unfit to care for the girl. When the mother refused, Sofianos and Hatt took the infant anyway, police said, and returned to Connecticut with her.

According to a Lewiston police affidavit, Melissa Hatt told police she was in the bathroom at her Pierce Street apartment and came out to find her daughter, Calliope Hatt-Fisher, missing. Melissa’s mother, Sofianos, was standing in the doorway blocking Hatt’s exit, according to the court document.

After arguing with her mother, Melissa Hatt said she ran outside and found her daughter sitting in the back seat of her sister’s car, not strapped into a car seat.

Her mother and sister sped off in a blue Dodge Intrepid with Connecticut plates. Melissa Hatt told police she was “shocked” that the pair would take her baby without permission.

Lewiston police Detective Bernard Stone wrote in his affidavit that Calliope was entered into a national crime database as a missing child.

Sofianos and Hatt eventually were arrested by police in Connecticut. They were jailed and later released. Now, warrants have been issued ordering them to return to Maine to face the charges against them.

The 6-month-old was taken into custody by child services workers in Connecticut, police said. The case is being investigated by that department and by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

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