Family reunited with tot
Source: Agencies |
December 19, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
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A California family has been reunited with a baby boy who was abandoned on a doorstep after authorities say his mother was killed by a couple who kidnapped the infant because they wanted a son.
The Merced Sun-Star reports that Child Protective Services brought the two-month-old back to his Planada home on Thursday night.
He was welcomed there by his father and more than a dozen other relatives.
The boy and his mother, 26-year-old Ana Lila Diaz DeCeja, disappeared from their home on December 2. Her body was found badly burned in Snelling that same day, and the baby was found wrapped in a blanket at a home in nearby Le Grand five days later.
Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin said a couple arrested on Wednesday - Teresa Robles, 33, and Jose Velarde, 37, - have confessed to luring DeCeja to their home and strangling her.
They husband and wife plotted to steal the baby because she recently suffered a miscarriage over the summer and they badly wanted a son, Pazin said. The couple have three other children.
"The suspects used a ruse to lure Ana to their house," Pazin said. "Ana was then attacked by the husband, strangled, then driven dead to an orchard outside Snelling."
The husband attempted to dispose of the evidence by burning her body, Pazin said.
Shortly after she was killed, the couple brought the baby home and introduced him to their three children, ages 13, 11 and eight, as their new baby, "Jose," Pazin said.
But the couple panicked after the media reported on the story and decided to abandon the baby, who nearly died from exposure to the cold, authorities said.
He was taken to a local hospital and has recovered.
A witness reported that on December 3, a man and woman carrying a baby in a car seat in Merced asked if the witness "wanted to buy a baby," authorities said.
The suspects, who have no criminal history, are being held in Merced County Jail without bail. The children are in the custody of Child Protective Services.
The Merced Sun-Star reports that Child Protective Services brought the two-month-old back to his Planada home on Thursday night.
He was welcomed there by his father and more than a dozen other relatives.
The boy and his mother, 26-year-old Ana Lila Diaz DeCeja, disappeared from their home on December 2. Her body was found badly burned in Snelling that same day, and the baby was found wrapped in a blanket at a home in nearby Le Grand five days later.
Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin said a couple arrested on Wednesday - Teresa Robles, 33, and Jose Velarde, 37, - have confessed to luring DeCeja to their home and strangling her.
They husband and wife plotted to steal the baby because she recently suffered a miscarriage over the summer and they badly wanted a son, Pazin said. The couple have three other children.
"The suspects used a ruse to lure Ana to their house," Pazin said. "Ana was then attacked by the husband, strangled, then driven dead to an orchard outside Snelling."
The husband attempted to dispose of the evidence by burning her body, Pazin said.
Shortly after she was killed, the couple brought the baby home and introduced him to their three children, ages 13, 11 and eight, as their new baby, "Jose," Pazin said.
But the couple panicked after the media reported on the story and decided to abandon the baby, who nearly died from exposure to the cold, authorities said.
He was taken to a local hospital and has recovered.
A witness reported that on December 3, a man and woman carrying a baby in a car seat in Merced asked if the witness "wanted to buy a baby," authorities said.
The suspects, who have no criminal history, are being held in Merced County Jail without bail. The children are in the custody of Child Protective Services.
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