November 5, 2009 2:25 PM
- Text
Cops Find Missing Baby Under Sitter's Bed
Updated at 7:30 a.m. Eastern.
Florida authorities have found a missing baby alive under her baby sitter's bed and say they're planning to charge the baby sitter, her husband and the child's mother.
Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said early Thursday that investigators found 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick in a box at Susan Elizabeth Baker's home near Chipley, a rural Panhandle town. The child had been missing for five days.
Haddock said deputies are working to charge Baker, James Arthur Baker and Chrystina Lynn Mercer. Haddock wouldn't provide details. He said more information would be released soon.
Her parents reported Shannon missing Saturday afternoon. Haddock said authorities don't believe the father was involved. He said Susan Baker and the father are related.
CBS News correspondent Michelle Gielan reports that, months before the kidnapping, Susan Baker wrote to Florida Governor Charlie Crist claiming that Shannon Dedrick's parents smoked cigarettes and drugs with the baby in the same room, even saying the baby was being abused.
Child services investigated the claims, but did not intervene, saying there was never any reason to remove the child.
In an added twist, Gielan reports that police say this not the first missing child case involving the Bakers. Their own 3-year-old son Paul went missing 22 years ago. That case is still unsolved.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Florida authorities have found a missing baby alive under her baby sitter's bed and say they're planning to charge the baby sitter, her husband and the child's mother.
Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said early Thursday that investigators found 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick in a box at Susan Elizabeth Baker's home near Chipley, a rural Panhandle town. The child had been missing for five days.
Haddock said deputies are working to charge Baker, James Arthur Baker and Chrystina Lynn Mercer. Haddock wouldn't provide details. He said more information would be released soon.
Her parents reported Shannon missing Saturday afternoon. Haddock said authorities don't believe the father was involved. He said Susan Baker and the father are related.
CBS News correspondent Michelle Gielan reports that, months before the kidnapping, Susan Baker wrote to Florida Governor Charlie Crist claiming that Shannon Dedrick's parents smoked cigarettes and drugs with the baby in the same room, even saying the baby was being abused.
Child services investigated the claims, but did not intervene, saying there was never any reason to remove the child.
In an added twist, Gielan reports that police say this not the first missing child case involving the Bakers. Their own 3-year-old son Paul went missing 22 years ago. That case is still unsolved.
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