SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Noel, Missouri, man, who is a Somali national, has been arrested in the Republic of Guatemala and returned to the United States to face a federal indictment for kidnapping the 4-year-old daughter of his deceased girlfriend state the US Attorney’s office of the Western District of Missouri.

Mahamud Tooxoow Mahamed, 39, was charged in an indictment returned on Aug. 20, 2019. The indictment alleges that Mahamed kidnapped his murdered girlfriend’s daughter, a minor victim (identified in court documents as Jane Doe 1) and transported her from Missouri to Iowa.

Mahamed is not facing charges directly related to the murder of his girlfriend, 25-year-old Jessica McCormack. No one has been charged in her death. Authorities ruled homicide after the badly decomposed body of an adult female, was discovered by a bicyclist on July 29, 2019, stuffed in a suitcase, along US-59 between Lanagan, Mo., and Noel.

Mahamed has not been in custody since these charges were filed in August 2019. He has been a fugitive from justice since the indictment, but was recently arrested in Guatemala, expelled from that country, and returned to the United States. His initial court appearance was held this week in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. He remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing Monday, Aug. 2, 2021.

According to an affidavit filed, the last time McCormack was seen alive was when law enforcement officers responded to a call at her home, the 200 block of Main in Noel, on July 16, 2019. Also present in the residence were Mahamed, who was identified as McCormack’s boyfriend, and McCormack’s three daughters, identified in court documents as Jane Doe 1 (four years old), Jane Doe 2 (two years old), and Jane Doe 3 (six months old).

“McCormack’s children could not be located after her body was discovered and identified. An Amber Alert was issued for McCormack’s three children, who were located at a residence in Des Moines, Iowa, and taken into state custody on Aug. 8, 2019. According to the affidavit, a woman who formerly worked with Mahamed at the Tyson plant in Noel told law enforcement officers that Mahamed arrived at her Des Moines residence with the children on Aug. 5, 2019. She discovered he had left on Aug. 8, 2019, the affidavit says, when she found a note from Mahamed informing her that he could not care for the children.” — US DEPT OF JUSTICE RELEASE OF INFORMATION

Investigators confirmed with the father of McCormack’s oldest child that Mahamed did not have his consent to take Jane Doe 1 outside the state of Missouri.

NOTE: The charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence. Additionally Mahamed has not been charged in the death of McCormack.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the FBI, the McDonald County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, and the Des Moines, Iowa, Police Department.

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