A woman police say lied about being raped by a Fort Richardson soldier in January is now accused of staging a phony kidnapping.

Police say Elisa LaCroix called 911 late Saturday night. Her 3- week-old son, Ethan, had been taken from his bed at her South Anchorage apartment, she said.

For the first time in Alaska, troopers said, authorities launched an Amber alert -- an urgent bulletin used to find missing kids. Neighbors watched as investigators with dogs and flashlights scoured the neighborhood late into the night for clues, stopping cars and searching Dumpsters.

"We ran the investigation pretty much by the numbers and took everything at face value," said Lt. Dave Parker, a police spokesman.

At least to begin with.

Asked for suspects, LaCroix pointed the finger at the same man police and prosecutors say she falsely accused of rape: ex-boyfriend Cole Rothacher.

Rothacher had been cleared of the rape charge. After talking to him Sunday, authorities say they are convinced he had nothing to do with the missing baby, either.

"As you might imagine, (he) didn't know anything about it," Parker said.

Instead, police say, LaCroix had come up with a plan to hide her baby, a plan that led to her arrest Sunday and accusations that she made up another crime.

OUT THE WINDOW

Here's how it started:

LaCroix, 20, and her husband, Kaid LaCroix, a Fort Richardson soldier, spent Saturday night watching movies in their ground-floor apartment, the couple told police.

At about 9:15, Kaid thought his wife was putting the baby to bed.

About an hour later, he went to check on the boy in his crib. The infant was gone.

It was Elisa who phoned the cops. She told police she believed the baby had been taken from his bed through an unlocked window.

What really happened, police say, is that Elisa LaCroix handed the infant to a friend through one of the chest-high windows that look out at the parking lot and a walkway surrounding the snowy apartment complex.

"It was all part of the plan to keep the husband from gaining any kind of custody before he went overseas to be deployed," Parker said.

Although they apparently still lived together, the couple filed for divorce earlier this month, according to state court records. She was afraid her husband would somehow gain custody of the boy before he deployed, police said.

"They had some lady out in the hallway doing paperwork," said neighbor Breanna Lange.

Lange said she met Elisa when the young mother came upstairs and suggested an older daughter would like to play with Lang's kids.

"She seemed really nice. Her baby was really cute."

Searchers remained concerned for the infant's safety until shortly after noon, when they located Amelia Cameron, a 20-year-old family friend, and found the baby with her, unharmed, on Fort Richardson.

The child is now safe with family members, Parker said.

Police arrested LaCroix on Sunday and charged her, once again, with filing a false police report, plus violating restrictions placed on her from the last time she was charged. She remained at the Anchorage jail Sunday night on $2,000 bail.

Investigators have concluded Cameron didn't know LaCroix was going to file a fake missing-child report, so she will not be charged with a crime, Parker said.

AN EMPTY CRIB

For LaCroix, the criminal charges are piling up.

She told authorities in January that Rothacher had beaten and raped her at knife point, leading police to arrest the soldier, who spent nearly two weeks in jail.

But police and prosecutors later said her story was false, that LaCroix had staged a fake attack, injuring herself and stabbing her bed with a knife.

The soldier was released and LaCroix -- who also goes by the name Elisa Arts -- was arrested Jan. 27 on charges of tampering with evidence and filing a false report.

At the time, police said she was already in custody for a felony burglary probation violation.

On her MySpace page, LaCroix describes herself as a proud parent whose occupation is "sales rep." Under "interests," she writes: "I believe in love, even though it tends to be a rather fluid concept. I think everyone deserves a second chance, not thirds, fourths, or fifths."

As for the new charges, LaCroix's lawyer, Rex Butler, said she's pleading not guilty.

He described a young mother worried about losing her son. Kaid is about to be deployed to Afghanistan, Butler said, and Elisa -- who was on house arrest -- was afraid he would take custody of the infant and send the boy to live with Kaid's family out of state.

"She has been cooperating with authorities for several hours to get the baby back, unharmed and healthy," Butler said.

"She made the wrong decision for probably the right reasons," he said.

LaCroix had been out of jail on the pending charge and on house arrest, he said.

Even though police knew LaCroix's history of lying when she reported the fake kidnapping Saturday, Parker said they had no choice but to treat the missing child report seriously. They had a real baby, an empty crib and a witness -- the husband -- who confirmed the baby was gone, Parker said.

"Even if she'd been alone ... we'd still have to take every reasonable step to investigate this because we're talking about the life of a baby."