INTERVIEW WITH SHERIFF JUDD
Sheriff - It's a story, it's an event that we don't see very often because there is safe haven laws where you can legally take a baby, a week or less in age, to a fire station, EMS station, a hospital and hand it off anonymously and you have no criminal proceedings against you for child neglect or abandonment or anything like that. That's not what happened. This all occurred, starting really, late Friday night when a lady thought she heard some cats screaming and fighting at about midnight, going into Saturday morning and then it quietened down. And then about an hour and a half later, she heard this screaming and crying again. She went outside and said, 'well, that's a baby', so she got her husband and the two of them searched around and out in the woods they found this infant, this beautiful baby girl. I have named her Angel Grace Lnu. She's as beautiful as an angel. It's by the grace of god she is not dead. And Lnu (
he pronounces it Lanu), is, last name unknown. So immediately, obviously, they dial 911 and EMS and sheriff's deputies arrived and we found this baby, who is 6.5 lbs, fully developed, very healthy, now has some insect bites for being in the woods, at least, an hour and a half wrapped in some old blankets and left there with, still, the umbilical cord and the placenta attached. So obviously we raced this baby to the hospital and she is in exceptionally good condition. She's a beautiful child.
We believe she's of a Hispanic descent. And we need to know who the parents are. We have worked throughout the community and no one claims to know who the mother is. From experience, usually it's a younger person who does not want the child or has somehow hidden the presence of the child from their parents and now they've abandoned this child in the woods all alone. Thank god for neighbours who were inquisitive and said 'that screaming is not right', and it's coming from, not in the mobile home park, but out in the woods and there they find this child. So at the end of the day, the baby is beautiful and healthy and we are more than happy to provide services. We have turned the child over to the custody of DCF and the investigation is ongoing.
Reporter - The nature in which the child was left in the woods does it lend you to believe that the child was left there to die, essentially?
Sheriff - Oh absolutely, because this child was left in.. it was in the low 50's. It was very cool that evening, and it's an infant. It was, what, an hour old? hour and a half old when we found it. We don't know whether the child was born in the woods or whether the child was taken to the woods after it was born. That is still under investigation. But certainly we saved this person from a homicide charge, because had that child laid out there and died then we would be talking about a murder investigation, now we're not. And you know what? if Mom doesn't want the child, I can tell you there are thousands of people across the United States that would give anything to be able to have a healthy little baby girl. And we'll make sure that the child gets a good home, but we'll also find out, with the communities help, who the mother is. We want to hold her accountable, but she's not required to take the child if she doesn't want the child.
Reporter - You said you will hold her accountable?
Sheriff - We will hold her accountable because she left this child abandoned in the woods, ostensibly to die.
Reporter - And so. we're talking about a child neglect charge?
Sheriff - Sure.
Reporter - If you could map it out for me - I can see this mobile home park, kind of like it's circular, the circle goes around and then you said the woods. So how far did these neighbours have to go into the woods to find this child?
Sheriff - Well, Willow Oak is just west of Mulberry. So Willow Oak is a community, it's not a town, and there's two mobile home parks. So when this lady heard the child screaming at 1:30, she looked over the fence, into the wooded area and could hear from where the sound came, so she had to send her husband out of this mobile home park, around into the other and kind of guided him to the area, and they located him (
presuming he means her). So those people are heroes, true heroes. That lady and her husband saved Angel Grace's life.
Reporter - Are there any reasons to believe the person responsible for this, the mother, lives in that mobile home park or is it a drive away?
Sheriff - We have absolutely no idea where the mother is. Historically, and experience tells us that the mother's from the area or has relatives in the area. Somehow, usually the mother of one of these events either lives in that community and/or has relatives or friends in that community. So we have gone door to door and so far, no one has cooperated, if they knew anything, everyone has denied knowing that there was anyone there pregnant. So the investigation goes on.
Reporter - So I want to ask you - I don't know how much you can disclose about this but a baby that is fresh, an hour or so old, attached to the umbilical cord, I mean, I would assume that there's DNA. Is that something that you can investigate?
Sheriff - Absolutely, we've already taken the appropriate DNA samples and we will be at the FDLE lab in Tampa first thing in the morning with the DNA samples. So we will compare those against the databases and see if that leads us any place. There's still a lot of work to do, and over the weekend we've just gathered evidence, talked to a lot of folks and we'll be back to talk to more folks, because it is the weekend. So we'll go back into the community when people are coming home from the weekend and talk once again. But we hope that some of them watch your broadcast on television and, ultimately, can tell us who the mother is. And once again, if the mother does not want the child she can put the child up for adoption. And I can tell you, when you look at this beautiful baby, this beautiful child, there are people standing in line by the thousands, across the state and nation that would love to have this beautiful Angel Grace Lnu.
Reporter - I know you're not the health department but can you talk about safe haven? and I think (??) get a lot of attention, but can you talk about how any fire department, any EMS station?
Sheriff - Sure. The law clearly states that it has to be a staffed station, such as a fire department with personnel, EMS station with personnel, the hospital. You can literally walk up, hand that baby to a firefighter and drive off and never disclose who you are, and there's no criminal liability for that. But you've got to know to do it, and I would suggest that most people don't know there is a safe haven law. We have one, and we encourage the use of that, and every now and then we see that someone takes an infant, less than a week old, to a fire station, or EMS station, or to a hospital. But, literally, they could have handed this infant over into professional's hands, had no liability and we would have been way down the road on this, but thank goodness we see, what appears to be, some minor insect bites, but 6.5 lbs. This baby's healthy and she's got a great set of lungs. So as she was screaming out for help she saved her own life as well.
Reporter - We live in a very political climate right now. I've already heard people say... maybe giving the mother a pass, if you will. What kind of person does something like this?
Sheriff - Oh, you know, anyone that wants to give mother a pass is just absolutely wrong. There has to be accountability because had it not been for a great set of lungs on a healthy baby, she would have been dead. Had it not been for this wonderful lady and her husband, this baby would have been dead. So there has to be responsibility and accountability. It's not like we're going to put her in jail, turn the lock and throw the key away. That's not going to happen. But there has to be responsibility and accountability in our society, especially in light of, there was a way for her to deal with this without any criminal charges at all. But right now, we know the baby's healthy, in the hospital, DCF is doing their thing and we'll make sure the baby has a wonderful home, someplace.
Reporter - In your law enforcement career can you remember another case like this where a baby was left in the woods?
Sheriff - No I can't. I can tell you, I remember children abandoned. Usually they are taken to someone or handed to a neighbor or someone's called, but I can't tell you that I recall ever a baby being wrapped up and placed in the woods, out in the woods, where someone had to go find it, had to search it out. But you know what? when you think about it, the reason that baby's here is because it was born healthy and it had a great set of lungs and there were great people. So all the pieces came together for that child to end up alive, healthy and well and I look forward to the time that that child is in college. And, who knows, maybe that's the little girl that finds the cure to all of these different horrible diseases in some lab in the future.
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