The Parents of This Poor Lil Baby Should Be Painfully & Permanently Sterilized! ={
Woman Hid Birth, Left Baby, Police Say (Lorain duplex resident charged; infant found in garage in fair condition)
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Diane Suchetka and Mark Puente (Plain Dealer Reporters)
Lorain -- A 23-year-old woman who hid her baby's birth from friends, family and the infant's father has been accused of leaving the child in her garage while she left town, police said.
Heather Heck is in the Lorain County Jail on a felony charge of child endangering. She is awaiting a first court appearance today, when bond will be set, Lorain police Sgt. Mark Carpen tiere said.
The baby is in fair condition at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital.
A neighbor who lives in the other half of Heck's duplex found the crying baby Sunday -- the same day the woman and her boyfriend returned from a trip to Pennsylvania -- when he went into the garage he shares with her to get toys for his children.
Heck also is charged with obstructing official business, a misdemeanor, for misleading police in their initial investigation, Carpentiere said.
"We were retracing her steps the last few weeks and we became aware she was engaged in activity that would be indicative of someone who's caring for a child," Carpentiere said. He declined to elaborate.
Police confronted Heck with the evidence Tuesday, the detective said, and arrested her about 2 p.m. She was crying during the questioning, Carpentiere said.
"She realized it was a serious situation."
Heck told police she gave birth to the child by herself at her home on West 14th Street, Carpentiere said. She hid the birth from family and friends but had cared for the baby to some degree for the six to eight weeks since he was born, he said. She left the baby home alone while she went to work at Wendy's, Carpentiere said.
"She did not explain why she deserted the child," Carpentiere said.
"It's really not clear at this point why she did what she did."
In a telephone conversation Monday with a Plain Dealer reporter, Heck denied having the baby or abandoning him. "I have nothing to do with it," she said.
Police have not charged her boyfriend, Wesley Cales, 20, who Heck says is the father. He did not live in the duplex, police said.
"Right now, there's nothing to indicate he was involved in this," Carpentiere said.
Robert Arroyo found the baby when he walked into the dark, unheated garage he and Heck share and heard wailing. He walked over to the Chevrolet Blazer that had been sitting there for about two months, opened the door and spotted the baby inside.
The infant lay in a white laundry basket and was partially covered with a soiled sheet. A can of baby formula and a bottle of curdled milk rested next to the basket. The child had bed sores indicating it had been in the same position for about three days, doctors told police.
Arroyo said Monday that he suspected Heck or Cales was involved. "I'm positive," he said. "They had to have put the baby in there."
But he said he never heard a baby crying through the walls of the side-by-side duplex he shared with Heck.
Police say they will continue to investigate. Other charges could be filed later, Carpentiere said.
"There are a lot of unanswered questions," he said.
Plain Dealer reporter Molly Kavanaugh contributed to this story.
To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:
dsuchetka@plaind.com, 216-999-4987
mpuente@plaind.com, 440-324-3773
I found the article here.
***
I am just agog at this... utterly speechless. ={
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Diane Suchetka and Mark Puente (Plain Dealer Reporters)
Lorain -- A 23-year-old woman who hid her baby's birth from friends, family and the infant's father has been accused of leaving the child in her garage while she left town, police said.
Heather Heck is in the Lorain County Jail on a felony charge of child endangering. She is awaiting a first court appearance today, when bond will be set, Lorain police Sgt. Mark Carpen tiere said.
The baby is in fair condition at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital.
A neighbor who lives in the other half of Heck's duplex found the crying baby Sunday -- the same day the woman and her boyfriend returned from a trip to Pennsylvania -- when he went into the garage he shares with her to get toys for his children.
Heck also is charged with obstructing official business, a misdemeanor, for misleading police in their initial investigation, Carpentiere said.
"We were retracing her steps the last few weeks and we became aware she was engaged in activity that would be indicative of someone who's caring for a child," Carpentiere said. He declined to elaborate.
Police confronted Heck with the evidence Tuesday, the detective said, and arrested her about 2 p.m. She was crying during the questioning, Carpentiere said.
"She realized it was a serious situation."
Heck told police she gave birth to the child by herself at her home on West 14th Street, Carpentiere said. She hid the birth from family and friends but had cared for the baby to some degree for the six to eight weeks since he was born, he said. She left the baby home alone while she went to work at Wendy's, Carpentiere said.
"She did not explain why she deserted the child," Carpentiere said.
"It's really not clear at this point why she did what she did."
In a telephone conversation Monday with a Plain Dealer reporter, Heck denied having the baby or abandoning him. "I have nothing to do with it," she said.
Police have not charged her boyfriend, Wesley Cales, 20, who Heck says is the father. He did not live in the duplex, police said.
"Right now, there's nothing to indicate he was involved in this," Carpentiere said.
Robert Arroyo found the baby when he walked into the dark, unheated garage he and Heck share and heard wailing. He walked over to the Chevrolet Blazer that had been sitting there for about two months, opened the door and spotted the baby inside.
The infant lay in a white laundry basket and was partially covered with a soiled sheet. A can of baby formula and a bottle of curdled milk rested next to the basket. The child had bed sores indicating it had been in the same position for about three days, doctors told police.
Arroyo said Monday that he suspected Heck or Cales was involved. "I'm positive," he said. "They had to have put the baby in there."
But he said he never heard a baby crying through the walls of the side-by-side duplex he shared with Heck.
Police say they will continue to investigate. Other charges could be filed later, Carpentiere said.
"There are a lot of unanswered questions," he said.
Plain Dealer reporter Molly Kavanaugh contributed to this story.
To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:
dsuchetka@plaind.com, 216-999-4987
mpuente@plaind.com, 440-324-3773
I found the article here.
***
I am just agog at this... utterly speechless. ={