NJ NJ - Melissa McGuinn, 7 mos, Trenton, 6 March 1988

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I might sound horribly judgemental here but why was a person with the mental ability of five years old left with a baby? or was this kind of thing normal in the 80's?
 
humanracer said:
I might sound horribly judgemental here but why was a person with the mental ability of five years old left with a baby? or was this kind of thing normal in the 80's?
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She wasn't left alone with the baby. The McGuinns had agreed to take her into their home to try to teach her how to care for her own baby.

She picked up little Melissa and took her out of the house. She came back 8 minutes later without Melissa and told many different stories about what happened. Investigators determined that Wanda would say anything she thought the person questioning her wanted to hear.

I don't think the McGuinns did anything wrong. They sound like a couple with big hearts who wanted to help someone who was definitely in need of much help. I've received so much help in my own life, what would it make me to judge anyone who offers to help others? No one is omniscient.
 
LCoastMom said:
Thank you, I should have known this, probably did on some level but some of these cases effect me so emotionally that I throw all common sense out the window. :blushing:

I think the chance of Wanda's ex doing something altruistic is pretty slim, remember this is a man who married a severely disabled woman and had two children with her who were removed from their care. If he said he wanted to trade her baby for drugs, I suspect that's exactly what he wanted to do. I do wonder if Wanda agreed to this and then handed over Melissa instead, but I find it odd that with all her changing stories Wanda never gave this version of the event to LE.
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Oh, I don't think the ex was altruistic. I have a strong suspicion that he knew he could not get custody of his children back the legal way. But even abusive, neglectful parents often think they love their children and want custody of them.

I just think it's possible that he meant to con Wanda into bringing out their baby and she made a mistake. After he took the baby, he realised the baby he had wasn't a boy and was therefore not his child... and then he had a problem.

I suspect that by the time investigators realised how easily led Wanda was, her memory was thoroughly contaminated and she probably had no memory of the objective truth.
 
If she had the mental capacity of a 4-5 year old, wouldn't her first story come closer to being the truth before alot of questioning and getting confused?
 
concernedmother said:
If she had the mental capacity of a 4-5 year old, wouldn't her first story come closer to being the truth before alot of questioning and getting confused?
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Depends on how the questioning was conducted. There have been many cases of young children giving misleading or impossible stories from the beginning because they were questioned by someone who was not aware of the special issues that involve getting information from children.

Hindsight being 20/20 and all, it's obvious now that LE should have brought in a qualified specialist in questioning small children to question Wanda. But they couldn't know what they didn't know until they learned it, if you see what I mean. And I am sure they were very aware of the clock ticking, ticking, ticking...
 
Oh, I don't think the ex was altruistic. I have a strong suspicion that he knew he could not get custody of his children back the legal way. But even abusive, neglectful parents often think they love their children and want custody of them.
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Wanda's son was not the ex's? It was her current (at the time) husband Robert's son, who also lived with the McQuinns. Unless I am missing something?
 
CastlesBurning said:
As it seems that Wanda has a repeated history of violence toward babies -- perhaps she panics or gets upset when they cry or otherwise infringe upon her -- I hate to say that I doubt Melissa is still alive.

Typically, when babies vanish, I always think there's a strong possibility someone who couldn't have their own took them to raise, or perhaps sold them to another childless couple. But I just don't think so here.
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I hate to say it but I agree. It is easy for a baby's body to disappear never to be found again. She could have easily thrown the child in a trash can and no one found her.

I also think she may have had enough time to go to the river. People often over or underestimate time when stressed.

I don't think this woman was part of a kidnap plot.

I would like to see how the radio show account differs from the blog, though. I don't have time to listen to the show.

Grainne Dhu said:
She wasn't left alone with the baby. The McGuinns had agreed to take her into their home to try to teach her how to care for her own baby.

She picked up little Melissa and took her out of the house. She came back 8 minutes later without Melissa and told many different stories about what happened. Investigators determined that Wanda would say anything she thought the person questioning her wanted to hear.

I don't think the McGuinns did anything wrong. They sound like a couple with big hearts who wanted to help someone who was definitely in need of much help. I've received so much help in my own life, what would it make me to judge anyone who offers to help others? No one is omniscient.
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She apparently was left alone with the baby. She was allowed to take her on walks alone regularly.

Of course I can't see how they could have known the danger involved.

Grainne Dhu said:
Depends on how the questioning was conducted. There have been many cases of young children giving misleading or impossible stories from the beginning because they were questioned by someone who was not aware of the special issues that involve getting information from children.

Hindsight being 20/20 and all, it's obvious now that LE should have brought in a qualified specialist in questioning small children to question Wanda. But they couldn't know what they didn't know until they learned it, if you see what I mean. And I am sure they were very aware of the clock ticking, ticking, ticking...
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There have seriously been no cases of children initially making impossible or bizarre stories up in statements to investigators. In pretty much all of those cases, the children were carefully led to the bizarre or impossible stories by LE.
 
no updates?? have they given thought to having one of the local stations do a segment on melissa's case?? i understand you may have to be very persistent in these cases.
 
after being reopened a famous case in nyc involving a child was solved.
with the right amount of publicity i believed this one can be as well.
 
I have read all the posts, the blog and I think all the news article and I have two questions.
1. Why are they so sure that Wanda was gone for 8 minutes? (nj.com article. Sorry can't cut & paste on my tablet) Eight minutes is rather precise Who says 8 minutes, rather than "about 10 minutes". I also wonder if the time is off and perhaps she did have enough time to get to the river.
2. The blog mentions that the door was blocked by a sleeping bag and the neighbor and Wanda had trouble getting inside. How then did Wanda get out of the house without help? did she leave by another way? also, if Becky "discovered" that the sleeping bag made it difficult to open the door, why didn't she move it! it might not be important at all, but it did get me wondering.

As for blaming the kidnapping on a black man, that's not an unusual tactic to take. People put blame on someone that they expect can do the deed and who they think others will believe. She may have been told to say that by someone, but it is equally likely that she made it up on her own. five year olds are capable of making up lies. They are usually not very good at it, but it sounds like Wanda wasn't very good at it either. She was actually ahead of the "trend.". Charles Stuart did the same when he murdered his wife in Boston a year later and several years later Susan Smith also told police a black man took her car & kids. Prejudice runs deep.

My thoughts are that sadly the child is no longer with us. Wanda ha told many stories and none of them name an accomplice. While it sounds like she could be easily led, at some point after being questioned extensively, she would have given someone up. It doesn't sound like she has the capability to not say anything. So unless the neighbor did indeed take the baby, I doubt anyone else was involved.

Has anyone tried speaking to her now, or even better, speaking to friends and family? Perhaps she told someone hat really happened.
 
http://www.610kvnu.com/national/1df0b979af3edb4eac32b3312ffceae1

In a stroke of luck, the investigators actually have a sample of Melissa's DNA: the hospital where she was born kept her newborn blood sample. So if they find Melissa, there will be no problem confirming her real identity.

So far four women in their mid-20s matching Melissa's description have been tested. Three of them were not a match. Detectives are awaiting DNA results on the fourth. House waits patiently for news of her daughter and never stops searching.

"There's not a young lady that I've walked past that I don't look and wonder," she said. "I feel one of these days, I'm going to walk up and actually look at myself, just younger. And it's going to be her."
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