OROSI, Calif., March 29, 2007
Heartbreaking Mystery In California
DNA Tests Say 3 Babies Abandoned Since 2005 Almost Certainly Have Same Mom
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Marely Pena (left), who found the body of a third abandoned baby in Orosi, Calif., last December, is seen here at a graveside service for the little girl, March 28, 2007, in Dinuba, California. (AP)
This week, DNA tests established all three babies were almost certainly born to the same mother.
Now, in a heartbreaking mystery that has transfixed Orosi, California - a farm community of about 7,300 people - investigators are trying to find the mother and figure out what drove her to such desperate lengths.
"How can the relatives not see this girl pregnant, and then see that she's not pregnant anymore and not ask where's the baby? Somebody must know something," said Hortencia Espino, 81.
All three newborns were found within a two-block radius. The first two - a boy and a girl - survived and are now wards of the state.
The third baby was found dead of exposure on the cold night of Dec. 3. She was enveloped in a sweatshirt in the bed of a pickup parked near the high school, some 60 miles southeast of Fresno. The coroner concluded she was alive for less than a day.
On Wednesday, a Catholic church held a baptism and funeral Mass in Spanish and English for the baby girl, who was dubbed "Angelita DeOrosi," or Orosi's little angel.
Later, under the shade of a corrugated plastic awning, sheriff's officials and grandmothers delicately sifted handfuls of dirt onto her white coffin before it was lowered into the earth.
Marely Pena, who found the infant in her father's truck, cried behind dark glasses.
"I ask myself every day 'What if she had been alive?' We could have saved her," said Pena, 25. "I just hope the mother comes forward to please just make us feel at ease."
Orosi, a town encircled by fig and lemon orchards, has long been the kind of place where everyone seemed to know each other. But that is changing, with new housing developments going up and a burgeoning gang problem that has led to a rise in violent crime.
As upset residents built makeshift shrines in honor of Angelita, authorities interviewed local women they thought might be involved. But DNA testing eliminated them as the babies' mother.
After exhausting all leads, officials are asking the community for help finding the parents and are offering a $5,000 reward. Police said the mother could face criminal charges. But they also said they want to make sure she doesn't do it again and isn't in some kind of distress.
Investigators would not speculate as to the reasons for the abandonment, such as whether the mother might have been a prostitute or a rape victim.
"Whether the mother is in a physical state of danger or a mental state where she feels she can't ask for help, our heart goes out to her," Karen Franzen, manager of Dopkins Funeral Chapel in Dinuba, which donated a casket and cemetery plot for Angelita.
The first deserted newborn was found on Feb. 10, 2005, a barely breathing boy with a body temperature of just 85 degrees. On January 8, 2006, a resident discovered a full-term baby girl inside a pickup two blocks away, clothed in an undershirt and pants.
On Monday, sheriff's officials announced the DNA results. The first two babies probably had the same father, but Angelita was fathered by a different man.
California and 46 other states allow parents to legally abandon a child at a hospital or other designated safe zones within 72 hours of birth, no questions asked.
Since California's law went into effect in 2001, parents have safely surrendered 182 babies at fire stations, emergency rooms and other safe havens, according to state officials.
"This little community is a family. We know pretty much everyone else's business and they know ours," said Eugene Etheridge, principal of Orosi High School. "It's concerning that this could happen again when the most precious thing we have is our children."
By Garance Burke © MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 133 Commentsno one has the right to control a woman's right of choice. i am pro-choice and a woman and yes i had an abortion and i have had no regrets whatsoever. my life was in danger and having the abortion saved my life.
this does happen out there.
I have to go now.
Posted by hlgplfe5 at 08:52 AM : Mar 29, 2007
You are entitled your opinion. That's fine. But I'm proud to be pro-choice. Don't give people that *** of them being ashamed of themselves. Shame on you!
Posted by hlgplfe5
I agree with the first part of your post. There is no reason for this to have happened. She, assuming she is not being controlled by someone else, could have left the baby at a hospital, church, etc. Or she could have had an abortion early in the pregnancy despite the barriers the so-called "pro-life" movement has placed on it. Be that as it may, in a democracy, people have choices. Having that choice prevents this kind of situation from happening much more frequently. At the end of the day, we really don't know what the circumstances are behind this tragedy. Certainly someone is criminally responsible. Nevertheless, this is not a time to exploit your political agenda and/or spread your reactionary shame. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for not being more evolved in your thinking.
Are you suggesting that there were no abortions or "population control" before that? Do you realize that the self righteous always have a villian to blame...
With the availability of prevention (low cost or even free)... abortion should not even be an option now ...except in rare cases. Elimination the "Blessed Event" is now an "eraser" for stupid mistakes.
What if the baby that is being killed is also female?? What about her rights to her body, hmmmmm??
This is a "free country" (at least for now... if the ACLU is successful it may not be)Keep your own ideas and opinions... no one is trying to change it for you... but please let the rest of us have the same option.
What if the baby that is being killed is also female?? What about her rights to her body, hmmmmm??
PS....
I was adopted, and I am very thankful that my birth mother was pro-life.
life begins at conception; therefore, abortion is most definitely murder. that's a fact, jack - not an opinion - no getting around it. and you know one of the 10 commandments is 'thou shalt not kill' - i wouldn't be going against the Master if i were you!
The phrase "thou shalt not give a woman an abortive remedy" has been removed from the Hipocratic Oath.
mer
Posted by jerryomara
If the woman was Christian she wouldn't have left the babies in abandoned truck beds or benches to possibly die. She would have left them at a hospital or church. A sick Christian isn't really a Christian.
Posted by star2510
Or, just perhaps, we would be teaching, stressing, and practicing moral responsibility (even before pregnancy).
What if the baby that is being killed is also female?? What about her rights to her body, hmmmmm??
PS....
I was adopted, and I am very thankful that my birth mother was pro-life.
Posted by cjhr43
Amen to that. I am a grandma of two grandaughters. It's tough out there.
here's a clue: look for a girl between the ages of 13 and 19 and look for her to be still living at home--possibly migrants, (and therefore, under the radar. just look for the daddy who seems to be really jealous or protective of anyone who looks at HIS little girl. Sad fact, but often the modus operandi of incest daddies.
Girl probably had no money for abortion or was too young and could never tell the truth or tell/implicate her parents about what happened.
The whole argument over pro-life or pro-choice could very simply be avoided with one small pill a day. "She may have been raped" you say. Yeah right, every 11 months for the past three years she has had a child. I'm sure the rapist is watching and waiting for that event to take place so that he can start all over.
Posted by cjhr43 at 11:14 AM : Mar 29, 2007
Oh, there are a lot of babies AND children to adopt here. Ever been to an orphanage or seen the roster from foster care.
The fact is, people want new borns not potentially 'damaged goods' and so they go to another country to buy one. They think they will be able to imprint themselves on the child better if no one else influenced them first.
The fact is, the kids here that go unadopted are: biracial or an undesired minority, from a questionable home, come with emotional, physical and sexual baggage--plus in foreign countries, people who could not pass the screening here can adopt if they have enough money.
Several years ago a ring was broken up of children that were being adopted by couples and used in child pornography rings. There have also been cases of single males in the states adopted minority boys and using them for pleasure.
It is not that there are no kids here--it is that some couples feel the bars to adopt are too high in the states, while other people just belong behind bars.
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