Morning Con-mute: Escaped Inmate Caught Napping in Granny's Car| Crime Alert 6AM 12.18.2025

Talk about a backseat driver! An elderly woman unlocks her car door one morning only to find an escaped inmate hiding inside! 

A husband caught on cam dragging his wife's dead body from their apartment complex...is finally back on U-S soil. He fled to Peru with their kids after the crime. Plus, owners of a tree lot left tree-mendously upset after their giant Santa is snatched! Jennifer Gould reports. 

 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Crime Alert. I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime is now. A
North Carolina woman on her way to work see something
move in her back seat and uncovers a shocking discovery.
Seventy five year old Maurice Steinberg finds twenty three year
old Charles Babb hiding in her car one morning just
before work. Bab, twenty three, recently escaped from the Chowan

(00:21):
County Detention Center. Good Morning Jennifer Gould has the details.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Nancy talk about a backseat driver. Maurice Steinberg got the
ultimate jump scare in Edington, North Carolina, when she went
to unlock her car around seven thirty in the morning.
She was expecting a routine drive to work, but instead
found a literal jailbird nesting in her back seat. The

(00:48):
uninvited passenger was twenty three year old Charles Edward Bab,
who had pulled a disappearing act from the Chowan County
Detention Center just the night before, and of all the
houses in Eddington to end up at, he picked the
home of former State Senator Bob Steinberg, who had pushed

(01:09):
for prison reform during his ten years in politics. Bab
was not exactly blending in either. He was still rocking
his prison issued orange jumpsuit and was cozied up under
a blanket he swiped from the Steinberg's garage loft. This
hitchhiker had escaped custody using a handheld edged weapon to

(01:32):
slice his way to freedom. Instead, though, of a high
speed getaway, he decided to play hide and seek in
Marie's unlocked car. Rather than losing her cool, Marie used
what she called her quote unquote mother act to keep
the fugitive calm chatting him up while he repeatedly apologized
for being freezing and famished. Marie spoke to Wavy ten News.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
I figured if I was nice to him, he'd be
nice to me, And I said, well, Hi, let me
go in.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
And get you a coat. The desperate colin actually asked
the seventy five year old if she had a phone,
and where's the nearest McDonald's. Where's it located? Apparently freedom
tastes like a mcdouble. The standoff ended when bab bolted
from the vehicle and fled down the driveway, but he
did not get too far because Marie alerted her husband,

(02:25):
dialed nine one one, and Edington police nabbed him just
a few houses away. Bab is now facing a laundry
list of new charges, including felony, escape, breaking and entering,
and larceny. He tried to catch a ride to freedom,
but instead he got driven straight back to his concrete suite.

(02:47):
For the latest crime and justice news, follow Crime Stories
with Nancy Grace on your favorite podcast app. You can
also watch Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Fox one
and YouTube. Nancy Thanks Jennifer. More crime and justice news.
After this, a high profile international manhunt reached its conclusion

(03:11):
when Hosi mar Cabrera, thirty six, was extradited from Peru
to Los Angeles to face charges for the murder of
his wife. Cabrera arrived at Los Angeles International Airport under
heavy guard, marking the end of a complex diplomatic effort
to return him to the United States. The defendant had

(03:34):
been in the custody of authorities in Lima since late August,
following his decision to surrender to the Peruvian National Police
after fleeing his Lancaster, California home. Neighbor Sylvia Perez spoke
to ABC seven Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
We haven't got justice for her, you know, so I'm
happy that you know they're gonna get justice for this lady.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
The criminal investigation began on August twelfth, when thirty three
year old Sila Cabrera, a mother of three, was reported
missing by her family. The search ended in tragedy four
days later, when her remains were located at the base
of a steep embankment within the Angelus National Forest south

(04:18):
of Lancaster. Search and rescue personnel discovered the victim's body
tightly bound in industrial material, a detail that would later
prove pivotal to the prosecution's case. Detectives from the Los
Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau quickly identified Hosimar Cabrera

(04:38):
as the primary suspect after obtaining surveillance footage from the
couple's apartment complex. The video allegedly captures Cabrera in the
early morning hours dragging a heavy, bulky object shrouded in
material matching that found in the forest out of the

(04:59):
residential building. Prosecutors contend the object was the bagged body
of his wife. Following the alleged disposal of the remains,
Cabrera fled to his native Peru, taking the couple's three
young sons with him. The children were later located by
Peruvian authorities and safely returned to California to be reunited

(05:22):
with their maternal relatives. While the Los Angeles County Medical
Examiner's Office has not yet released the formal cause of death,
the DA's office has filed murder charges accompanied by a
special circumstance allegation involving the use of a knife. Cabrera
is currently held without bail and is awaiting his formal

(05:44):
arraignment in Los Angeles Superior Court and finally talk about
a big time heist. Kramer's Tree Lots, a family staple
for twenty five years, is feeling deflated after a crew
of holiday hoodlums snatched their iconic forty foot tall inflatable
sanna that would leave me tremendously upset. The festive fiends

(06:08):
cut through a fence and literally drag the joy out
of the lot, leaving Marx in the gravel where the
towering Saint Nick was just hauled away. Owner Kyle Kramer
is stumped on how the thieves even pulled it off,
because it took four grown men just to hoist the
massive mascot. Neighbors are reviewing security footage to help police

(06:29):
wrap up this case before the holiday spirit is lost
in the woods. Phoenix police are investigating, hoping to find
the Naughty crew before they can inflate their ego any further. Nancy.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
For the latest crime injustice needs, go to crime online
dot com and please join us for our daily podcast,
Crime Stories, where we do our best define missing people,
especially children, and help solve unsolved homicides. With this crime alert,
I'm Nancy Grace STI