Angelique Robledo was a teen who was adjusting to her changing life when she made a friend she thought was going through the same.
In 2011, Robledo was expecting her first baby ahead of her senior year of high school. While she enjoyed a healthy pregnancy, it was a lonely one as she adjusted her plans for the future, dropping out of school and watching her friends enjoy their senior years.
As she entered her last trimester, the small-town Arizona girl focused on preparing for her baby and working at her part-time job. Then, a friend told her about another pregnant teen they’d met.
Kassandra Toruga “had met a few of my friends and when they met her, they were like, ‘Our friend Angelique is our age and she’s also pregnant.’ So they wanted to get us together to know each other,” Robledo tells PEOPLE.
When they met in a group setting, “Everything seemed completely normal.” The two girls hit it off and kept in touch through Facebook and text.
“We were in contact, but we never hung out. She was just at a distance. But it seemed like after she met me, all of a sudden, she knew everybody that I knew,” Robledo says.
Robledo’s husband ended up meeting Toruga, too, and encouraged his partner to invite her to their baby shower. While she couldn’t make it, “She asked if she could come over and give me the gifts she got me and spend time with me,” Robledo shares.
“I had just turned 18, so I lived with my mom and dad. Looking back, when she came to my house, there were certain things that I just felt uneasy about. It did feel like she was trying to mimic my life,” she says.
Robledo noticed that while chatting with Toruga, the teen would have stories that were “exactly the same” as her own.
“I remember looking at my mom because, as a teenager, I was a little annoyed by it. When we were alone, I asked my mom, ‘Do you think she’s weird? What do you think of her?’ And she’s like, ‘I think that she’s somebody who’s broken, somebody who just needs attention. She seems to find comfort in your friendship.’ “
Robledo remembers feeling bad for being hard on Toruga, who said she had moved to the area to live with her sister after the death of both of her parents. The teens continued through their day, talking about their pregnancy experiences.
“It kind of made me understand why she wanted friends so badly. I thought she just wanted somebody to relate with,” Robledo says.
Eventually, Toruga left the room again for a phone call. That’s when Robledo’s mom started getting ready to take the teen’s brother to football practice.
“Kassandra had been asking to go out all day but when I said we could go with my mom, she shot that down and said she wasn’t feeling good,” says Robledo. “My mom was fine with us staying back, so we stayed at the house by ourselves while everyone else was out.”
Things were going fine, with Toruga even sharing some gifts she’d gotten for Robledo.
“She said, ‘I’m going to go behind you and drop the presents into your lap, one by one.’ I thought it was weird, but I went along with it. There was a newborn onesie, a receiving blanket, little booties. a pacifier, but just one of everything. Nothing had tags. And I remember they smelled like men’s cologne,” Robledo shares. “But I was taught not to be rude. There’s nothing wrong with hand-me-downs, so I said thank you and that the gifts were cute and I appreciated it.”
The story is substantiated by police accounts obtained by PEOPLE.
Toruga had two more “special” gifts for Robledo, she said. The first was a baby wrap that was pricey for the expectant mom at the time, which Toruga insisted she got multiples of at her own baby shower. The last gift, however, was one she wanted to give Robledo in the dark.
“We went to my room and she told me to turn around and close my eyes,” Robledo recalls. “She’s digging through this bag in the dark room with the door closed. I started to have a weird feeling. It’s like somebody was whispering in my ear telling me, ‘You’re going to be stabbed.’ “
“I felt super uneasy and I started complaining that I was in pain. I sat on the bed and she got behind me, but she was still digging through this bag. I couldn’t stop thinking about getting hurt and how I’d protect myself. I was going back and forth about whether that was rational,” she recalls.
“She was ready and counted down, with her hand on my shoulder, and I popped up. She was completely startled and immediately put something back in her bag. I asked what she was doing and just then, her phone rang,” Robledo says. “Kassandra started speaking to someone in Spanish, which I don’t speak, and I was so confused.”
When Toruga came back, Robledo followed her lead and pretended like nothing was wrong.
“I was in survival mode. I was too scared to say or do anything. She said it was her husband Edwin on the phone and that he was going to come get her soon. Then she wanted to try on clothes. She said he was going to take her to meet his family in Maricopa and kept saying how she didn’t have anything to wear. I finally said, ‘If you want something to wear, you can see if anything in my closet fits,’ ” Robledo says.
“I had a tealight candle lit in my room, not for any particular reason,” Robledo says. “She goes in the room to try things on and I’m feeling a little better knowing she’s getting picked up soon. And everything feels normal enough that now I’m questioning myself again.”
Toruga emerged from the room in an outfit, while Robledo went in after realizing she smelled smoke.
“The candle was out. I was looking all over my room — under my bed, in the closet, in the drawers. I couldn’t let it go and she was like, ‘That’s weird,’ ” Robledo says. “I relight the candle. I actually grab another candle and bring it into the room. I lit it, and she started pushing me out of the room, wanting to try something else on. So I just got out and in my head, I felt like she was starting a house fire. I was convinced she was doing something in my room.”
Robledo tried talking to Toruga through the door, but Toruga didn’t say much in response, she recalls. Robledo kept an eye on the opening at the bottom of the door, watching her pace about her room.
“When she finally opens the door, I barge my way in and the candle is out again. It smelled like smoke. I looked everywhere again, and when I opened my closet door, my whole closet was in flames,” Robledo recalls.
“All of my clothes were on fire. I yelled, ‘What did you do?’ I tried to call 911 but I was panicked and ended up calling my friend who I’d spoken to earlier in the day off my call log. I’m screaming, ‘Call 911!’ “
Robledo grabbed Toruga to get out of the home. As they got outside, first responders and the friend she called were arriving.
“I pulled him aside and told him as everyone’s showing up that I was scared and what I thought was going on,” Robledo says. She admits she didn’t think her friend believed her at first. She told him not to tell anyone, but he did what he thought was right instead.
Robledo was given oxygen as she began having contractions. Moments later, Toruga said the same was happening to her.
“She’s telling the cops information that didn’t match what we knew about her. Then she tells the paramedics she thinks she’s in labor and wants to go to the hospital,” Robledo says.
“They grabbed that diaper bag she had with her and I said, ‘Wait!’ I grabbed the bag and told everyone she said she had a special gift for me in there. She made it sound to me like it was a light-up Pillow Pet. I said, ‘If that light is in here, that proves I’m crazy and paranoid,’ ” she recalls.
According to Maricopa Police Department records, where officers shared narratives of the evening’s events, “[Fighter fighter Paul Newman] was handed a bag by the pregnant girl’s mother and the diaper bag contained two large kitchen knives and scissors. Newman then handed me the bag, upon looking into the big I observed the knives and scissors. I took the bag and secured it in my patrol vehicle.”
“I drop it all and my hands are shaking, I’m screaming, ‘I told you she was going to kill me,’ ” Robledo says.
Police began an investigation at that time. At the hospital, authorities confirmed that Toruga was not actually pregnant.
As that process unfolded, Robledo found herself at home, coping with the fact that “people didn’t believe me.” In February, she welcomed her son, Ryland.
“They felt I was looking for attention because I didn’t actually get stabbed. There was no proof publicly of what happened, so that was really difficult for me as a new postpartum mom,” Robledo says.
Robledo’s mom and husband were by her side as she struggled to move forward. While she was thankful to have survived the attack, she was discouraged by how slowly the investigation was moving. She recalls “wondering if any of it was real.”
“It put a hold on me being able to be a happy mom. Weeks later, I got a call from the detective. He said, ‘We have Kassandra. She confessed everything. We have everything and she’s going to go away for a really long time.’ “
One officer’s testimony of that admission reads, “I asked Kassandra what she was going to do with the knives she had in her diaper bag. Kassandra stated she was going to stabbed [sic] Angelique with them. Kassandra stated she was hoping that Angelique would go into labor. Kassandra stated she was going to kill Angelique and take the baby.”
“It was a big thing. People don’t typically survive fetal abductions. I dissociated and seemed normal, but throughout that whole first year with Ryland, I was just so sad,” Robledo says. “I don’t remember his first steps or his first words. I never went to counseling or dealt with the trauma. I just kept going and wanted to prove I was strong and didn’t need anybody.”
Robledo says she was inundated with “messages and apologies” after news of Toruga’s arrest became public. Police believe that Toruga was “obsessed” with having babies after previous miscarriages and felt drawn to Robledo, who was none the wiser.
“I know over the years people have thought I was stupid or naive, but I was a teenager. I was thinking, ‘This doesn’t happen to people like me.’ I didn’t even think about her wanting my baby. I just thought she wanted to kill me but never once did it come into my head that she wanted my baby,” she says.
The legal process proved “disappointing” after Robledo learned that Toruga’s confession would be thrown away because of a procedural error. As a result, she could only legally be held responsible for arson.
“I didn’t really understand everything. All I knew was that they were telling me she could walk, we could go to trial, or they could do a plea agreement where she’d spend seven-and-a-half years in Arizona State Hospital to treat her for schizophrenia, manic-depressive disorder, all of her diagnoses. I thought about it for a few days,” Robledo says. “At first, I wanted her to go to prison because I was so angry she wasn’t being charged with what she tried to do to me. Then I started thinking that one day, she’s going to be released and I didn’t want that to happen without getting the help she needs.”
Robledo recalls writing an emotional letter to read at her sentencing. Though she cried as she told Toruga that she didn’t “want to hate her” and hoped to forgive her one day, Toruga had nothing to say to the tearful new mom in response.
Toruga was released in August of 2019.
“I had been keeping track of her previous hearing and knew that there were concerns medication and treatment wasn’t working,” Robledo says. “I didn’t go to the release but I went to the board hearing where they evaluated her for release.”
“Once she served her time, she magically got better. It felt like b——- and I felt very uneasy. I spoke on my family’s behalf and saw her for the first time since her sentencing. Ultimately, she was released with some supervision for the first year,” Robledo says.
Robledo has come to embrace the story as part of her life’s journey. In doing so, she’s also shared it with Ryland, who is now 13.
“I’ve been very open with my son. Ryland has been going on interviews with me. He’s seen interviews with me. When Kassandra was released, Ryland was about 8 or 9. I decided I needed to sit down and talk to him and explain to him who she was. I didn’t go into a major detail, but I did go into detail about the fact that she’s a dangerous woman,” she says.
“I explained to him about bad people in this world. It was difficult for him to understand at first, but now he does get that. He knows what happened to us is not common but to be aware of people and of his surroundings. Through this, I learned that anything can happen. It opened my eyes to how scary this world can be.”
Robledo has also felt empowered by sharing her story on TikTok, which helped her from “dissociating through it” to confronting her experience.
“After [Kassandra’s] release, I realized there was this new thing inside me that wanted my story to be heard. Once TikTok came about, I started seeing other survivors tell their stories, and I felt like I could tell mine,” she says. “I wanted to claim my story for myself instead of letting outside channels or outlets shape it. I think my healing journey started the moment I first shared my story on TikTok.”
She continues, “Nobody could twist my words. Nobody could say this didn’t happen. It was me, sharing my experience for the first time. People did understand and that empowered me. I went to counseling and got to better myself for the first time since going through something so traumatic. I didn’t get stabbed, but knowing her intentions and hearing her confession, it was so real.”
“It’s felt amazing after being scared of comments and what people would think. I had to realize people could say what they’d do or how they’d feel, but nobody’s been through it but me. Nobody’s life or their son’s life was at risk but mine.”
Robledo is grateful to use her platform to raise awareness for fetal abduction. She’s also connected with other families impacted by the uncommon but traumatizing crime.
“People don’t hear these stories because many people don’t survive. They aren’t here to tell their stories. Now I look at it as I’m able to advocate, not just for myself and my son, but for victims of this crime because it’s not very common and I can be a voice,” she says.
“I want women to know they can trust their instincts and intuition. I don’t want people to feel bad for me. I want them to learn from me,” she continues. “I want them to understand that we all ignore intuition sometimes, but there’s a time to listen to it, too. It can absolutely save your life.”
