Baby Found Under Bed: Susan Elizabeth Baker to Be Charged (VIDEO)

A 7-month-old baby girl who had been missing for five days was found alive under her babysitter’s bed. Police plan to charge the sitter, Susan Elizabeth Baker, her husband, and the child’s mother.

Police searched Baker’s Florida home and found little Shannon Dedrick hidden under a bed. Baby Shannon seemed healthy and was taken to a local hospital.

Authorities plan to charge Baker, her husband James Arthur Baker, and the child’s mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer.

Police have not yet said what the mother's role was in the incident but do not believe the baby’s father, James Russell Dedrick Jr., was involved.

Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said:”Statistically speaking this should not have ever happened, that we found this child alive, especially after so many days. Time was against us.”

“It was very emotional for us, because once we got her to the hospital, we called our wives and every one of us was crying,” Haddock said. “Grown men crying. It’s just such a relief. We’ve had missing children cases in the past, but nothing like this.”

In August, Baker wrote a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist’s office begging for help for the baby. She claimed Dedrick shook the baby and that he, Mercer and others smoked cigarettes and drugs in front of her. Baker also claimed Dedrick wasn’t the child’s father and said he claimed paternity to get welfare benefits.

Investigators reported that both parents used marijuana and kept a messy home, but they said Shannon seemed to be cared for and in September, a physician said the baby was healthy and expressed “no concerns regarding the baby.”

Interestingly enough, Susan Elizabeth Baker was involved in a missing child case in South Carolina more than twenty years ago. Baker told police her stepson, 3-year-old Paul Leonard Baker, disappeared from the family’s Beaufort, S.C., home on March 5, 1987, while she was taking a nap.

Police searched the swampy area around the Bakers’ home but found nothing and she and her husband were extradited to South Carolina in 2000 to be charged in the child’s disappearance. Baker was never indicted and the 3-year-old boy was never found.

Baker did serve prison time, however, after police that were investigating her stepson’s disappearance found a 6-year-old girl in their home who had been severely beaten. Baker was then sentenced to 10 years in jail. but the sentence was suspended after 80 days.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Susan Elizabeth Baker Hid Baby: Shannon Dedrick Found Under Bed After 5 Days Missing (huffingtonpost.com)
• Fla. Baby Missing for 5 Days Found Alive Under Bed (abcnews.go.com)
• Fla. baby missing for 5 days found alive under bed (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Babysitter 'hid' missing US child (news.bbc.co.uk)

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Technorati Tags: Bobby Haddock, Charlie Crist, Chrystina Lynn Mercer, Florida, James Arthur Baker, James Russell Dedrick Jr, Paul Leonard Baker, Shannon Dedrick, South Carolina, Susan Elizabeth Baker

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