Police search for mother of dead baby
Anne Warfield
Police search for mother of dead baby
By ABBEY BROWN
STAFF WRITER
MIDDLETOWN - A Middletown man who came home to find a dead infant in
his side yard Friday said the situation upset their family quite a
bit.
"I could go my whole life without seeing that," the man said of the
discovery. "We were in shock."
Authorities aren't saying much about the incident except to confirm
that an infant was found dead and that a dog unearthed it.
An autopsy was performed Saturday in Peoria, Logan County State's
Attorney Tim Huyett said, but no details were released.
Officials do not want to say anything at this early stage that could
hinder the investigation, Huyett said.
The man who called the Logan County Sheriff's Office to report the
body said police aren't even giving them any details.
"We don't know the sex of the baby or the age," the man's wife said.
"But it appeared to be very, very young. Like a newborn."
Police were dispatched early Friday night to a small two-story house
in the 500 block of Madison Street after the family discovered the
baby. The home is on the north side of this village of less than 400
west of Lincoln.
The woman said she and her children came home about 3:45 p.m. and
noticed something in the front yard, but she said they had no idea
that it was a body.
Their St. Bernard mix puppy often brings things into the yard, she
said, and they assumed the dog had brought it and that the body had to
have been face down.
When her husband got home about 5:30 p.m., she said the body had been
moved to the side yard about four to five feet from the house and was
then face up. Even then, the woman said, they weren't sure if it was a
child or a doll.
The couple said they believe the dog may have dragged the baby into
the yard initially and then moved it into the back yard. "It wasn't
covered in dirt or anything," she said. "And it didn't seem to be
badly decomposed."
The couple said many of the rumors racing around the community weren't
true.
"It wasn't dug up from our yard," she said. "A lot of people said it
was dug up from under a boat. But the boat hasn't been moved. And
there isn't a hole large enough in the yard for the baby to have been
buried in."
The man said his initial reaction was fear.
"I have five kids," he said. "It was a real shock to have to see some-
The woman said police brought in a cadaver dog to search the area and
were looking for clues until about 11 p.m. Friday.
They said police gave their dog something to induce vomiting in order
to test for any evidence the dog brought the infant into their yard.
"This whole thing has been hard for the police too," the man said.
"... One of the (state police officers) kept calling the baby 'little
fella.'"
Neighbors Shawn and LeAnn Nelson said officers from the sheriff's
office came to their house Friday evening asking about the incident.
Their eldest daughter is pregnant.
"They kept asking us if (our daughter) had had her baby," LeAnn said.
"They kept saying, 'Has she had her son yet?' It got me sort of
spooked the way they kept asking. And then they wouldn't tell me why.
I didn't know what was going on."
She said she knew her daughter hadn't given birth yet.
"I know she wouldn't do something like that," LeAnn said. "Plus I know
she's still pregnant."
"It's a shame," Shawn Nelson said of the incident. "It is too bad."
Neighbors Jim and Cheryl Daniels, both 48, said their 23-year-old
daughter also was questioned by someone from the sheriff's office
about whether she knew anyone who had been expecting a child soon but
no longer was. They watched officers search the neighbors' yard by
flashlight Friday night from their living room window.
The Daniels, who have lived in Middletown 25 years, said the neighbors
who found the body had lived in the house for less than a year.
"You don't expect it in a small town like this,'' Daniels said.
"Anymore, it just ain't safe to go to bed at night without locking
your doors."
Abbey Brown can be reached at 788-1523 or abbey...@sj-r.com. James
Washburn of Copley News Service contributed to this report.
http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/20521.asp
--
Anne Warfield
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/