GUILTY IA - Gabriel McFarland, 4 mos, dies of head trauma, Des Moines, 22 April 2014

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jjenny said:
What kind of birth mother is not a high risk for non relinquishment?
If adoption agencies should start turning away pregnant unemployed teenagers, what kind of birth mothers should they not be turning away? Responsible adults with jobs?
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Statistically speaking there are certain characteristics, social issues, family demographics, and so forth which increase the likelihood of a birthmother changing her mind, disrupting an adoption, and/or displaying post - placement behavioural issues.

http://www.creatingafamily.org/adoption-resources/top-placement-risks-for-birth-mother-changing-mind-in-domestic-adoption

http://life.familyeducation.com/adoption/birth-parents/45794.html

Adoptive parents could possibly avoid 'placement failure' by altering their match criteria accordingly. I have great sympathy for both sides, especially this sweet babe who's life was over before it even really began.
 
craftybatchy said:
Statistically speaking there are certain characteristics, social issues, family demographics, and so forth which increase the likelihood of a birthmother changing her mind, disrupting an adoption, and/or displaying post - placement behavioural issues.

http://www.creatingafamily.org/adoption-resources/top-placement-risks-for-birth-mother-changing-mind-in-domestic-adoption

http://life.familyeducation.com/adoption/birth-parents/45794.html

Adoptive parents could possibly avoid 'placement failure' by altering their match criteria accordingly. I have great sympathy for both sides, especially this sweet babe who's life was over before it even really began.
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There was no adoptive agency involved in the case. Relative of the mother approached adoptive couple about adopting the child.
The adoptive couple agreed. Being a lesbian couple, they most likely didn't have many options available to them.
 
1&2&3 said:
After listening to the birth mom's interview, she mentioned that boyfriend had been "over about 50 times", so he apparently did not live with her. Was this the first time boyfriend had ever been alone with baby?

She also mentions that her family was very supportive of her decision to take the baby back and financially supported her. She jumped into defensive mode that "her" insurance had paid for the pregnancy. She reminded me of another child of the "ME" generation going as far as to state that the adoptive parents hadn't called, just handed him back! JMO
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Yes, supposedly this was the first time the bio dad was alone with the baby.
She only had this baby for a little over than a month after she took him back. From what she says, she spend her time watching cartoons and "Law and Order" with the baby, and father would come over.
 
jjenny said:
Yes, supposedly this was the first time the bio dad was alone with the baby.
She only had this baby for a little over than a month after she took him back.
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HE was hers to take back. Her son. Her legal rights.
 
Adoption was supposed to have been completed in the end of March.
Bio mom took the child back 11 days prior to the date. So I am not sure what else the adoptive parents could have done in these circumstances.

"The McFarlands said they were scheduled to get custody of Gabriel on March 24. But 11 days before that date, Atkins decided she wanted the infant back."

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2014/04/24/gabriel-three-moms-feel-loss/8131923/
 
Had the adoptive parents' attorney filed the paperwork timely the mother could not have gone back on her decision.

Gabriel was born on Dec. 28, and the McFarlands took him home from the hospital. He lived with the couple until March 13, when Atkins demanded her baby boy back.
The McFarlands were schedule to get custody on March 24.

SNIP

In most places, adoptive parents are granted custody 72 hours after the baby is born, but in Iowa, birth parents have four days to change their minds.

The McFarlands said Atkins was able to take back custody of Gabriel months after he was born because their lawyer didn't file paperwork terminating Atkins's parental rights, which is the first step in any adoption,

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...doption-fight-article-1.1769958#ixzz30VulQufY
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So is the attorney responsible for the death of this child?

Just wondering how fa we take this blame game.
 
jjenny said:
How was she going to raise him? She had no job and no high school degree.
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respectfully, I took offense to that and other members who were teen mothers without jobs and diplomas might as well.

I loved my children, whether I was 17 jobless and HS drop out or later when I was employed and had gained education and job skills.
 
Linda7NJ said:
No, I have never trashed a mother who left her child with a boyfriend or new husband that had no reason to suspect he would hurt the child.
I have issues with mothers that knowingly leave their children with abusive men!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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We have no way of knowing the murderer's history but I would be surprised if this was the first time he was ever violent and even more surprised if the mother didn't know he had violent tendencies. Even the friend had a bad feeling seeing him with the baby. Something sent up red flags to her.
Maybe it was completely out of his character and the mother really was taken by surprise. If that is the case then I really do feel bad for her. Maybe I should just keep my thoughts to myself since I have no way of proving whether or not he had been violent before.
 
DairyGirl said:
We have no way of knowing the murderer's history but I would be surprised if this was the first time he was ever violent and even more surprised if the mother didn't know he had violent tendencies. Even the friend had a bad feeling seeing him with the baby. Something sent up red flags to her.
Maybe it was completely out of his character and the mother really was taken by surprise. If that is the case then I really do feel bad for her. Maybe I should just keep my thoughts to myself since I have no way of proving whether or not he had been violent before.
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Because there are a lot of people that never assault anyone until they have kids and then they beat the crap out of them.

THe friend has a bad feeling after seeing him while he most likely had been assaulting the baby.. She probably realized something in the moment. Not the day before That moment.. when she called the mother the mother asked her to immediately go back.

There is no proof that this mother did anything wrong. She loved her child. She left that child with his father.

[modsnip]
 
So he appeared a wonderful father up until the moment he was left alone with the baby? He only had a shot time alone with the infant.
What was his possible motive to allegedly kill the baby?
 
jjenny said:
So he appeared a wonderful father up until the moment he was left alone with the baby? He only had a shot time alone with the infant.
What was his possible motive to allegedly kill the baby?
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And that is often sadly, All it takes. He killed the child. She did not. He was the one. Be mad at him. Not her.
Feel free to speculate why, but there is never a good reason.
 
jjenny said:
How was she going to raise him? She had no job and no high school degree.
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The same way other unemployed people without a degree raise theirs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
DairyGirl said:
We have no way of knowing the murderer's history but I would be surprised if this was the first time he was ever violent and even more surprised if the mother didn't know he had violent tendencies. Even the friend had a bad feeling seeing him with the baby. Something sent up red flags to her.
Maybe it was completely out of his character and the mother really was taken by surprise. If that is the case then I really do feel bad for her. Maybe I should just keep my thoughts to myself since I have no way of proving whether or not he had been violent before.
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Officers and medics responded to a 911 call from an apartment in the 6500 block of Chaffee Road about 8:20 p.m. Tuesday on reports of an unresponsive infant, according to police reports.

The infant's mother had left the baby with his father while she went to the library and to run errands, police said. She left the apartment around 7:25 p.m., police said.

Around 7:50 p.m., a friend went to the apartment to pick up a phone charger and saw Weehler-Smith holding the baby. The friend left and called the baby's mother, asking if she trusted Weehler-Smith with Gabriel, police said. The mother asked her friend to stay.

As the friend returned to the apartment complex, she saw Weehler-Smith driving away without the infant, authorities said. She called the child's mother, who raced home, officials said.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...s/2014/04/24/infant-death-des-moines/8083533/
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based on what I have read it seems like the friend had the bad feeling THAT night WHILE seeing him holding the baby. I wonder if the poor lil guy was already dead at that time. I wonder if the baby didn't seem right and the father seemed nervous. The mother had reportedly only been gone for less than half an hour when her friend stopped by. The friend returned to the complex right after speaking to the mother.

Don't stop expressing yourself DG. Just because I disagree with something you say does not mean I am not interested in hearing what you have to say

:hug:
 
Baby Gabriel had special needs/ disability. It appears in pictures his left ear is particularly low set, and he may have had a syndrome or other disabilities that go along with this. It doesn't matter now, but it is a piece of the whole picture of what happened. The bio-mom would have known this, as well. He would have needed a lot of care, health supervision, and therapy as he grew.

Gabriel was born deaf in one ear, Rachel told WHOTV.com. The McFarlands, pictured, had fitted him for a hearing aid and had planned to learn sign language so they could communicate with the child in case he lost the hearing in his other ear.
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...th-forced-learned-death-TV.html#ixzz30W8kKjK4

The adoptive parents found out baby Gabriel had died while watching the evening news. No one called them. Nice.

But on Wednesday the couple learned, while watching the evening news, that the infant they considered their own had tragically died.
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...th-forced-learned-death-TV.html#ixzz30WBRVynB
 
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