Second warrant served in hunt for missing infant

Police have conducted a second search of the York, Pa., home of a man accused of kidnapping his girlfriend's infant child while they were visiting family in Upper Darby.

According to the search warrant for the home of Ummad Rushdi, police were seeking the infant, blood evidence, DNA evidence, digging tools, computer and electronic equipment, and bedding.

Rushdi, 30, is charged with kidnapping 7-month-old Hamza Ali. Rushdi was arrested last week as he tried to run out the back door of his house in York. He was returned to Upper Darby and was being held on $750,000 bail.

Michael J. Chitwood, Upper Darby's police superintendent, said investigators believe the infant is dead and will likely amend the charges for Rushdi to include murder.

Chitwood said he had met with the Delaware County District Attorney's Office to discuss the case. Additional charges would come from it, he said.

"We have information that the baby was initially buried at the Columbia Borough location where the car was found," Chitwood said, referring a car owned by Rushdi's brother, Jawwad.

He thinks the infant was taken from a shallow grave, wrapped in white, and buried in a deeper grave at an unknown location. Rushdi "wanted the baby to receive a Muslim burial," Chitwood said.

He said police were continuing to search, focusing on a landfill and William Kane Park in York County, which has 1,637 acres and two lakes.

According to police, Rushdi and Zainab Gaal, 30, who live together in York, were visiting his parents in Upper Darby when he allegedly took the child and left in early Aug. 4. Hamza Ali has not been seen since.

Chitwood said Rushdi has refused to disclose the baby's whereabouts.

"He ain't giving that baby up. He knows it wasn't an accident," Chitwood said.

Police were called by the infant's mother when Jawwad Rushdi told her something terrible had happened to her son.

According to court records, Ummad Rushdi told his brother that he shook the child to death because he would not stop crying.

During a search of the York home last week, police reported finding a white blanket with red and blue stripes, a white shirt with a stain that appeared to be blood, and another stain that appeared to be bodily fluid, according to court records.

The child's mother identified the blanket as belonging to her son.

Also last week while searching for the baby, police found Jawwad Rushdi's Lincoln off an access road in Columbia, Lancaster County.

Cadaver dogs were brought to the area to search the woods. During the three-day search, a dog alerted handlers to a white pillowcase that was spread out on top of a rock. Police are processing the pillowcase for further evidence.

Calls to Ummad Rushdi's lawyer, Michael Malloy, were not immediately returned Wednesday.