GUILTY TX - Riley 'Baby Grace' Sawyers, 2, brutally murdered, Spring, 24 July 2007

[JanetElaine]

The breaking news was probably this? I can't find anything else.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312331,00.html

HOUSTON — Police on Tuesday announced a $20,000 FBI reward for information leading to the identity of “Baby Grace,” a toddler found in a blue plastic storage container that washed up on the Gulf Coast in late October.

 

[imthemom]

I thought the mother was a little cold in her response to reporters. I have a bad feeling about this one. If they thought that my baby was possibly found dead, I would be absolutely hysterical nut case, like the father who sounds like he is in such despair. I hope for him it is not his little girl but she has to be somebody's baby and I do hope they find out her true identity. I wonder if the mother had hid her body and then recently dumped it or maybe she had a BF that hurt the baby and they tried to hide it. Wouldn't be the first time. She may have heard of the Florida case where they said CPS came and took the little girl and no one has seen or heard from her since but they have suspicion on the fosther mother. I hope they are looking at the mother closely.

 

[JanetElaine]

How did this ball start rolling about the Spring girl? I didn't get that from any of the linked articles. Was it only after the father called in to say he thinks she looks like his daughter, and they went to check on her and find out the mom gave her to someone in July? If so, that's nuts. I mean, the mom didn't inquire about her daughter after she gave her to the 'Ohio official'? The dad didn't get in touch with mom since July? What the heck?

 

[NewMom2003]

Man, where have I been all day? I didn't see any of this.

 

[Texana]

How did this ball start rolling about the Spring girl? I didn't get that from any of the linked articles. Was it only after the father called in to say he thinks she looks like his daughter, and they went to check on her and find out the mom gave her to someone in July? If so, that's nuts. I mean, the mom didn't inquire about her daughter after she gave her to the 'Ohio official'? The dad didn't get in touch with mom since July? What the heck?

They mentioned her on the news here as a strong possibility. The age is right, the timeline is right for when she went missing, there was a custody dispute going on, the location for the mom is geographically possible as well--and she looks like the rendering of Baby Grace by the forensic artist.

I don't believe anyone came and took that child from the mother.

 

[NewMom2003]

The story of this mother in Spring sounds suspicious.

This is new. At least to me. Maybe I missed it on a previous report.

An autopsy found three skull fractures, but the cause of death has not been determined

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5317171.html

All along I thought she only had one skull fracture, not three.

 

[NewMom2003]

Is there a pic of the child from Spring anywhere?

ETA: Found one.

 

[NewMom2003]

This was posted underneath the Chronicle story by a poster.

I was wondering the same thing. A little girl in Spring, matching Baby Grace's description, suspiciously disappeared from her mother custoday. Apparently the woman moved to Spring from Ohio to move in with a man she met online. The mother says that two people showed up at her door with some "official paperwork" from Ohio stating that she had to give up custody of the child. Very suspicious!

I wonder where this person is getting this information?



Why didn't I watch the news last night or read the paper this morning. :banghead: My hands are shaking thinking Baby Grace may be identified soon.

 

[Texana]

There was a photo of the little girl from Spring (really Ohio, since her mother had just moved to Spring from Ohio and the bio father is still in Ohio) on the abc13 website story, but I see it's not there now.

She looked very much like the "Baby Grace" photo, her hair looked more like a two year old than a three year old, but she looked as much like "Baby Grace" as any of the possibilities we've gone through here, if not more so.

Maybe the poster in the Chronicle comments blog got that "met online" detail from another news story or maybe they just know someone in law enforcement there. Happens a lot with the news stories that someone who knows someone puts a comment on--like the big flap over the employee whose boss was the jury foreman in the David Mark Temple trial.

My relatives are from Spring and I'll be there Thursday. There are several apartment complexes there and some have a fairly transient population. It would be really easy for a little girl to be overlooked if she was new to the area--you would just assume that the little girl went to live with her father or relatives.

Slightly O/T: We had new neighbors move in around 18 months ago. Didn't see much of them, knew they had several boys, but heard the boys only rarely. One day, we realized we hadn't seen the wife in some time. We only saw her leaving the house occasionally in the morning to go to work, but we couldn't have told you when we saw her last. Then we realized we hadn't seen the boys except for the oldest in some time, either. Putting a few other clues together, we figured out they were getting a divorce, but I tell you, we looked at the koi pond in the neighbor's backyard a little suspiciously for awhile. (Too much W/S!)

But it can easily happen with a transient population that someone would move in somewhere and a child would go missing without being noticed.

 

[Squishified]

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but on this page there is a video that talks about the girl from Spring.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=5771686

 

[JanetElaine]

They mentioned her on the news here as a strong possibility. The age is right, the timeline is right for when she went missing, there was a custody dispute going on, the location for the mom is geographically possible as well--and she looks like the rendering of Baby Grace by the forensic artist.

I don't believe anyone came and took that child from the mother.

I know, but how did this ball start rolling, when did the authorities find out this girl (Spring girl) was missing? Only because of the father seeing the drawing of Baby Grace and calling it in because he thinks she looks like his daughter? Why wasn't he in contact with the mother and his daughter anymore? His daughter has not been seen since July, so he had not been in contact with her since at least then. Did they only now find out Spring Baby is missing?

 

[NewMom2003]

Texana, I had to laugh at your story about your neighbors! I do the same thing. My neighbor is also going through a divorce and I had not seen his wife in awhile and I became very suspicous as well. She's fine and living somewhere else now. I guess WS does that to a person!

I found a picture of the little girl from Spring and posted it above. Striking resemblance, except for the length of the hair.

Another poster on the Chronicle said that this child had been ruled out already. I can't find that it any news story though.

I think this is a strong possibility and I'm not buying this mother's story. Even if her daughter turns out not to be Baby Grace, where is she? If her father doesn't have her then who does?

And you are so right about the mother's location. Straight easy shot to Galveston from Spring.

 

[NewMom2003]

Did anyone here actually see this morning's press conference?

 

[JanetElaine]

I think this is a strong possibility and I'm not buying this mother's story. Even if her daughter turns out not to be Baby Grace, where is she? If her father doesn't have her then who does?

Exactly.... which is why I am asking my questions... lol.
If Spring Baby is not Baby Grace, then I think we can 'safely' say we have another child missing and endangered....

 

[NewMom2003]

I agree with you. If Baby Spring is not Baby Grace, then she's another missing child.

I can't find anything else about the little girl from Spring on the web. I'll make sure to catch the local news tonight. Hopefully they will do a recap of the press conference from this morning.

 

[dimples37398]

This article confuses me a little, So is it not the Spring girl or he isn't sure yet???????

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5315778.html


Information about "Baby Grace," a toddler whose body was found Oct. 29 on an island in West Galveston Bay.
Galveston County Sheriff's Office Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo said Monday that detectives are investigating 300 active leads, including a tip linking Baby Grace to a little girl in Spring.
"This is not Baby Grace," Tuttoilmondo said of the Spring girl. "I'm not going to get into the quality of the lead, but it's something we've got to look at."
He said the Spring girl had never been reported to authorities as missing.
"It's a girl who fits Baby Grace's description," he said.
The sheriff's office will join the FBI for a news conference today to brief the public on the investigation into the girl whose body was found in a box. The event takes place at 10:30 a.m. at the sheriff's office, 601 54th St. in Galveston

Kel

 

[dimples37398]

I think that I figured out what it is suppose to mean,
Why is a girl missing and not reported, and that she wasn't baby grace.....



http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/11/baby-grace-police-follow-tip-to-dead.html

The latest tip followed proved to be a dead end, but what was interesting was the information not given. Read this from the Houston Chronicle, "FBI to
A toddler is missing and not reported?

"This is not Baby Grace," Galveston County Sheriff's Office Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo said of the Spring girl. "I'm not going to get into the quality of the lead, but it's something we've got to look at."
He said the Spring girl had never been reported to authorities as missing.

kel

 

[Texana]

The bio-father of "Spring Baby" contacted authorities when he saw the photo of Baby Grace. Apparently, mother had custody, she moved to Texas, there was some ongoing custody dispute/discussions, and he has not seen the child since July.

This was my first thought all along, this is going to turn out to be one of the "shadow" children--that can turn up dead and nobody has even reported them missing. Precious Doe, the little black girl that was found dumped along a road about three years ago, was one of those children. Her mother's boyfriend had beaten her to death. The mother and her children and boyfriend (sorry, I could not bring myself to use the word family) had moved around and gone between states as well. So the grandmother had been given a couple of stories about the little girl's location when she did call, but finally put two and two together when she saw the artist's rendering on television.

These children are living with adults who are very transient, who do not have structured jobs/lifestyles, and who are the antithesis of "stable." So when we ask why no one has reported them missing, it's because there was really no one there to "miss them" in the first place, sadly.

I do wonder why and how they've ruled out the Ohio/Spring girl as a match already, based on a "very strong lead." Hmm.

 

[KT Can]

OMG I live in SPRING! What in the hey?! I just got on here, I got to go back through and catch up.....

 

[Chloekins]

I just heard a confirmation on the reward offered by the FBI this morning on NPR. A detail was mentioned that I havent seen posted so far concerning the broom skirt the child was wearing. Apparently it was a Target brand skirt. If this has been previously mention please forgive me this information was new to me.