Missing Fla. infant’s parents were investigate
CHIPLEY (AP) – Deputies on Wednesday blocked the entrance to the home of a woman who babysat a missing Florida infant, but officials would not say if she was a suspect in the disappearance.
Investigators were at the home of Susan Baker, 50. Earlier, the Florida Department of Children and Families released an Aug. 12 e-mail from Baker to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s office, pleading for the governor to help 7-month Shannon Dedrick.
“That child needs help and no one is helping her,” Baker wrote.
Shannon’s parents reported her missing on Sunday.
Authorities would not immediately confirm if the Susan Baker convicted in a South Carolina assault case was the same person who wrote to the governor about the baby.
Police reports show a woman named Susan Elizabeth Baker was charged in 1987 with assault and battery with intent to kill and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. She was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the sentence was suspended to 80 days.
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported to The News Herald of Panama City that the conviction was for the beating of Baker’s 6-year-old daughter.
In 2000, the same woman was extradited to South Carolina from Chipley, Fla., and charged in the disappearance of 3-year-old Paul Leonard Baker, who has been missing since March 1987, according to the exploited children site. The case is in “cold status,” said Robin McIntosh, spokeswoman for the Beaufort County, S.C., Sheriff’s office.
No information was available from records on what became of the charges against Baker or whether she was related to the boy.
Baker lives about 12 miles from the Dedrick home in a rural area of dirt roads and ramshackle mobile homes on the outskirts of Chipley.
“No one has been arrested. We are still treating this as a missing person case,” Mike Morrison, spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said late Wednesday.
The Beaufort County, S.C., Sheriff’s office has sent an investigator to Florida to assist in the missing child case, McIntosh said.
According to Florida Department of Children and Family records, child welfare workers began investigating abuse allegations involving Shannon less than two weeks after she was born.
The records showed that investigators frequently visited the infant’s home from August to late September. They reported that both of the parents used marijuana and the home was messy.
But the investigators said the baby appeared to be cared for. The risk to the child was repeatedly listed as “intermediate.”
On Sept. 18, an investigator said a physician had determined Shannon was healthy and had “expressed no concerns regarding the baby.” According to authorities, the baby was about 11 pounds, but they did not explain why a 7-month-old would be so underweight.