Posted on 11/20/2003 6:38:34 AM PST by Diddle E. Squat
HURST - Crime scene investigators Wednesday combed through a car and a house on Louella Drive looking for clues leading to the mother of a newborn boy found inside a trash bin last week.
A tip and witness statements led them to a 24-year-old woman who lives at the house, police said.
The team of investigators arrived about 2 p.m. at the spacious 1-story brick house in the 400 block of Louella Drive. The house is about four blocks southwest of where the baby was found Friday morning inside two plastic bags.
The baby, temporarily named John Doe, remained in fair condition Wednesday at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth. At a hearing Monday, Child Protective Services was granted temporary custody of the boy once he is released from the hospital.
The 24-year-old woman and her mother, whom police did not identify, were in the house Wednesday evening as crime scene investigators searched a Toyota Camry parked on the street beside the house for evidence. The women declined to talk to investigators, police said.
A woman who answered the telephone at the house declined to comment.
Investigators were scheduled to spend most of the night combing through the house for evidence, police said.
"The search warrant is for any evidence of a birth," Hurst police Sgt. Craig Teague said. "That includes DNA."
Investigators were expected to take tissue samples from inside the 24-year-old's mouth, police said. The samples would then be compared to the baby's DNA, Teague said.
No arrests were expected Wednesday night, Teague said. But the search warrant affidavit signed by state District Judge Bob Gill carries a charge of abandoning a child, a second-degree felony, authorities said.
Police first received a tip about the woman Monday, and then other witnesses came forward, Teague said.
Several neighbors expressed shock Wednesday night that the younger woman may have been the mother of the infant.
"I saw her a few weeks ago, and she didn't look like she was expecting a baby," neighbor Helen Holt said. "Both of them were pretty quiet."
Neighbor Michael Discoe said he noticed an unusual bag in front of the 24-year-old's house on trash day.
"I was taking my garbage out Friday or Tuesday, and I saw what looked like a Pampers plastic bag out for their garbage," Discoe said. "I thought it was strange because I had never seen any kids over there."
The baby boy was found about 9 a.m. in a trash bin in the 100 block of East Harwood Road. Doctors believe the child was minutes old when Hurst veterinarian Lee Chenault and technician Katy Marquis of Metroplex Animal Clinic found the whimpering baby in the trash bin.
The infant was still covered with birth fluids when he was found, Hurst police said.
For those not from Texas, this is near Fort Worth. Right now it is very hard to believe that the judge didn't know that her daughter was pregnant, then suddenly not, on the same day that the baby was found in her neighborhood, and didn't suspect her daughter. It was others who gave the tip, the judge appears (for now) to have been at least complicit in not coming forward, perhaps worse.
I hope the law comes down hard on here, and anyone else involved.
I've checked other media outlets and there is nothing about her mother being a judge.
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