FULL TEXT: Provo – A newborn
baby found dead in the Provo River will be buried Monday by strangers.
While circumstances
surrounding the infant’s death remain a mystery, employees of the Utah County
division of indigent services are seeing that the burial does not pass
unnoticed.
“We took the exception to
this case,” said Carlyn Brathwaite,” office manager. “It was so weird. … We
feel really sad. We’re really sorry for that person out there. They are
probably hurting really bad. We just wish someone would come forward.”
The indigent services program
purchased a grave site for Baby Doe in the babyland plot at the Provo City Cemetery.
The county also will pay for a coffin and burial services.
[“Strangers plan baby’s
funeral,” The Daily Spectrum (Saint George Ut.), Mar. 6, 1992, p. 5A]
***
***
***
FULL TEXT: Highland – A
jogger found a dead fetus [sic] at the mouth of American Fork Canyon Tuesday
afternoon.
Alpine/ Highland Police
Department Lt. Dave McManus said he didn’t know the sex of the fetus or how
long it might have been at the old Highland Park, located at the trailhead of
the American Fork Canyon Trail.
But the police lieutenant
revealed that investigators already have what they hope will be a significant
lead: a unique, hand-tied quilt the baby may have been wrapped in.
The quilt had plain red
material on one side, while the other side is decorated with a checkerboard
pattern of white squares. The quilt is tied with red yarn.
“The quilt was found in the
area of the crime scene, and we hope someone will be able to recognize it,”
McManus said. “It was hand-tied, and maybe someone gave it as a gift.”
The lieutenant said the human
fetus may be a full-term newborn. He said it was found 15 to 20 feet away from
the American Fork River in an area where it could be missed by people visiting
the old park. The jogger came across the baby around 4 p. m.
McManus said it’s possible
the fetus may have been in the area for as long as a week before being
discovered Tuesday.
McManus said the next step is
for the medical examiner to see what he can tell police. He also said
investigators will check with local hospitals in case the mother of the child
may have gone to a hospital.
[Pat Christian, “Baby’s body
found’ Police search A. F. Canyon for clues,” The Daily Herald (Provo, Ut.),
Aug. 5, 1998, p. 1]
***
***
FULL TEXT: Provo – Orem
resident Darcie Jo Baum, arrested Aug. 14 in connection with the death and
abandonment of her newborn baby, received permission Thursday to attend her baby’s funeral today.
Fourth District Court Judge
Ray Harding granted Baum’s request, but said she must be accompanied by a
sheriff’s deputy. The baby’s funeral is scheduled for 11 a. m. in Pleasant
Grove.
Since her arrest following
the discovery of an abandoned and decomposing newborn at Old Highland Park at
the mouth of American Fork Canyon. Baum, 25, has been held in the Utah County
Jail on $50,000 cash-only bail.
In court Thursday, deputy
county prosecutor Curtis Larson objected to a suggestion by public defender
Randy Spencer that Baum’s mother pick her up at jail and take her to the funeral.
“This is very uncomfortable
to me,” Larson said, pointing out the high bail amount and saying Baum might
flee to avoid prosecution.
Larson said he didn’t want to
appear dispassionate, but he told the court Baum wasn’t all that concerned with
her baby when she abandoned it.
Spencer, who was appointed to
represent Baum only hours before Thursday’s court appearance, spoke with his
client and later her parents. He told reporters his client is “extremely
concerned about her baby sand attending the funeral.”
He said it appears
prosecutors are still intent on pursuing homicide charges, although his client
was arrested for desecration of a body and has not been officially charged with
any other crime.
County prosecutors aren’t
ready to file charges, Larson told Harding, because the Utah County Attorney’s
Office hasn’t yet taken over the investigation from the Alpine/Highland Police
Department. With no charges filed yet, Baum’s felony first appearance was
continued until 8 a. m. on Aug. 27.
Alpine/Highland Police
Department Chief Kip Botkin on Thursday said investigators are still finishing
all the paperwork involved in the case.
“This is not an easy case and
we want to make sure we have all the information possible,” Botkin said.
Asked if investigators have
all the lab work back from an autopsy performed on the baby, the chief said,
“Obviously, we don’t have everything we need yet.”
The chief said he won’t say
why, but he believes the baby was already dead when it was abandoned near the
canyon.
[Pat Christian, “Judge Grants
Orem mother permission to attend baby’s funeral," The Daily Herald (Provo, Ut.), Aug. 21, 1998, p. A2]
***
FULL TEXT: Provo – An Orem
mother arrested in connection with the death of her newborn child was freed
Thursday.
Darcie Jo Baum, 25, had spent
13 days in the Utah County Jail because she was unable to post the $50,000
bail.
But at a waiver hearing
Thursday morning in 4th District Court during which Baum was
expected to be charged, Urah County Attorney Kay Bryson told a judge his office
wasn’t prepared to file criminal charges. Baum was then ordered to be released.
Ten days after a decomposing
newborn was found Aug. 4 at the mouth of American Fork Canyon, a hand-tied quilt
found at the scene led police to Baum as a suspect.
She was arrested for
desecration of a body, and police and county prosecutors said they were
investigating the death as a homicide. Baum, however, was never officially
charged.
It appeared Baum delivered
her daughter at a residence in Orem and then abandoned the infant at Old
Highland Park, Alpine/Highland Police Department Chief Kip Botkin said the day
of her arrest.
Baum was briefly freed from
Jail Aug. 21 when, accompanied by a sheriff’s deputy, she attended gravesite
services for her baby at a cemetery in Pleasant Grove.
Prosecutors opposed her
public defender’s request to attend the funeral with family members because
they were worried she might flee. Earlier, they said they wanted Baum held in
jail on $50,000 cash only bail, and their request was granted.
But things were different
Thursday, when Bryson appeared in court empty-handed and Judge Ray M. Harding
released Baum.
Bryson told reporters his
office is still investigating the newborn’s death as a homicide but wasn’t
ready to file charges might be filed.
He said a number of medical
issues have complicated the case.
Fropm his office in Alpine,
Botkin confirmed his department hasn’t yet assembled everything prosecutors
need.
But, he said, “This case is
not over, Absolutely not.”
[Pat Christian, “Mother of
dead baby released from jail; Prosecutor not yet ready to file charges,” The
Daily Herald (Oren, Ut.), Aug. 28, 1998, p. 1]
***
FULL TEXT: Provo – An Orem
mother will go to trial for dumping her newborn baby girl near the mouth of
American Fork Canyon last July.
Darcie Jo Baum appeared in
court in Provo yesterday, and district judge Anthony W. Schofield set a two-day
trial for March 24-25.
The 4th District
Court judge also declined to arbitrate a defense motion filed by public
defender Randall K. Spencer that could let her off.
The 25-year-old woman is
charged with the third-degree felony of desecrating a human body, punishable by
up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
She also faces a Class B
misdemeanor of marijuana possession.
Spencer’s motion calls for
the court calls for the court to put down Schofield’s January ruling that bound
Baum over for trial. He claims prosecutors failed to come up with enough
evidence at the January preliminary hearing to establish sufficient probable
cause to send her to trial.
On Wednesday, Schofield
deferred a ruling on the motion to Judge Donald L. Eyre, indicating he has a
conflict.
“If I rule, I would be ruling
on my own ruling,” Schofield said.
Alpine/Highland police
investigators and prosecutors originally investigated the death of a baby girl
as a homicide after a jogger discovered the baby’s body Aug. 4 at the old
Highland Park near the mouth of the canyon.
But prosecutors finally
charged Baum with the third-degree felony, saying the baby girl’s body was too
badly decomposed to determine a cause of death.
Baum is free while awaiting
court proceedings.
Bail had been set at $50,000
and spent 13 days in jail in August, but she was freed after prosecutors failed
to file charges in time.
During the preliminary
hearing last month, a police detective testified thatr Baum told him she had
delivered the dead baby in her shower in Orem and later placed the body in a
plastic garbage bag before taking it to the park.
[Pat Christian, “Baum will go
to trial for dumping baby’s body by canyon’s mouth,” The Daily Herald (Oren,
Ut.), Feb. 18, 1999, p. A3]
***
FULL TEXT: Orem – The double
death Tuesday morning of Darcie Jo Baum and her newborn son is being
investigated as homicide, Orem District Attorney Gary Downey said Thursday.
“We’re investigating it as a
homicide, and if the child was breathing or born alive, then it could be a
homicide,” the detective said.
“And if she (Darcie) died
from childbirth that would be from natural causes.”
Preliminary results from a
Wednesday autopsy showed that the child had some air in his lungs, indicating
he took at lead Preliminary results from a Wednesday autopsy showed that the
child had some air in his lungs, indicating he took at least one breath.
But on Thursday, Downey said
he’s waiting for further results that could reveal what caused the baby’s
death.
The 26-year-old mother was
found dead at 10:30 a. m. Tuesday in her apartment on 1935 S. Columbia Lane.
A few feet away in the
bathroom, police found her newborn son dead inside the toilet.
~ Awaiting trial ~
Baum had been awaiting a
Sept. 30 criminal trial in the July 28, 1998, death of her newborn daughter.
The girl was born in the shower of the same apartment and later abandoned at a
park in Highland police said.
A hiker found the dead
newborn on Aug. 4, 1998 and an investigation led to Baum, who was charged with
the third-degree felony of desecration of a human being.
Police searching her
apartment after the first infant’s death also found marijuana. She was also
charged with a misdemeanor possession of marijuana in a drug-free zone.
“I also still don’t know who
the father is (of the dead boy),” Downey said Thursday.
Downey said he’s interviewed
the father of Baum’s 4-year-old son. Draye, who was also identified in court
documents as the father of the newborn girl found in the park.
But he said he doesn’t
believe the father of the latest newborn.
As happened last time, police
believe Baum’s friends and family were not aware she has been pregnant.
~ Talking to friends ~
Downey said he also talked to
another boyfriend, but has not yet been able to talk to the latest person
identified as being Baum’s boyfriend.
Downey DNA samples were taken
of the child that could help identify the father.
Baum’s 4-year-old child was
home with his dead mother and sibling, and is temporarily being cared for by
Baum’s sister.
Downey and Virginia
Blanchard, a police victim’s advocate worked with Baum’s family, say more than
likely Draye’s natural father would have custody rights down the road.
Downey said no illegal drugs
were found at the apartment this week.
“We didn’t even find any
prescription drugs,” Downey said.
“The house was a clean and
well kept home, really clean,” he said.
Apparently the bodies have
been released to the family for burial.
In an obituary prepared with
the help with the help of family members, funeral arrangements were announced.
The obituary confirmed that
Baum was born in American Fork, graduated from the high school there and loved making
scrap books, collecting Harley Davidson memorabilia and watching the Utah Jazz
and Dallas Cowboys play.
[Pat Christian, “Police
considering homicide in deaths of mother, baby; Investigators say Baum’s
family, friends may not have known she was pregnant again,” The Daily Herald
(Oren, Ut.), Aug. 27, 1999, p. A3]
***
FULL TEXT: Provo – Yet
another death of a newborn baby has been linked to the late Darcie Jo Baum.
Provo police say a new DNA
match closes an old case concerning a newborn baby that was found in the Provo
River on Feb. 22, 1992.
An Aug. 24 of this year, the
26-year old mother bled to death after delivering her newborn son in the toilet
of her Orem apartment.
An autopsy revealed her baby
was born alive and probably drowned.
At the time of those deaths,
Baum was awaiting a September trial for the death of her newborn daughter the
previous year.
That newborn’s body was found
by a hiker in Old Highland Park, at the mouth of American Fork canyon.
Baum was arrested for
homicide, but a medical report said the body was too decomposed to determine
what caused its death or if the newborn was even born alive.
Prosecutors could only charge
Baum with desecration of a human body, a third-degree felony.
On Thursday, a Provo Police
Capt. Keith Teuscher said DNA tests and interviews with Baum’s family had led
investigators to conclude the baby found in the river was also likely Baum’s
daughter.
Teuscher said the 1992 death
remained an open homicide investigation, but is now considered closed.
A Daily Herald story,
published the day after the Provo River baby was found, reported that the baby
had been discovered by a man fishing at 500 North West, Provo.
The newborn’s gloating body
had gotten caught on twigs in the river, the story said.
Teuscher said investigators
had little to go on at the time, because the body was in bad condition, and
state medical examiners couldn’t determine how the baby died or how long it
had been in the river.
Investigators called the
victim “Baby Jane,” and she was buried in the Provo Cemetery in an area known
as Babyland.
Teuscher said news of the
other deaths connected to Baum led investigators to wonder if there might be a
link to the unsolved homicide.
Other police departments and
the county attorneys office has also suggested investigating Baum on the outside
chance there might be a tie, Teuscher said.
“But we really didn’t have
anything we could go to court with tio get a tissue sample,” he said.
Teuscher said that it took
Baum’s death to open that door.
About a week ago, after the
University of Utah’s DNA diagnostic laboratory told investigators there was a
99.33 percent chance Baum was Baby Jane’s mother, investigators started
interviewing the woman’s parents and others.
“We learned she had been in
the area and would have been 18 (years old),” Teuscher said.
Asked iof the parents were
surprised by their daughter’s link to Baby Jane, Teuscher said, “I don’t want to
talk about what they said, but yes, this was all news to them, and they had no
idea she had been pregnant at the time.”
Teuscher also indicated he
believes this is the end of cases involving Baum.
[Pat Christian, “Baum linked
to third death,” The Herald (Provo, Ut.), Nov. 5, 1999, p. 1]
***
CHRONOLOGY
Aug. 1, 1973 – Darcie Jo
Baum, born.
Feb. 22, 1992 – body of
newborn found floating in Provo River. Called “Baby Jane” by police in open
homicide investigation.
1993 – son Draye born, is
allowed to live.
Jul. 1998 – body of newborn
girl found, American Fork Canyon.
Aug. 4, 1998 – arrested.
Aug. 21, 1998 – funeral for
baby; Baum attends, with court permission.
Aug. 27, 1998 – relased;
insufficient evidence to charge.
Oct. 27, 1998 – charged with
desecrating a body.
Aug. 24, 1999 – gives birth,
drowns baby in toliet; dies from blood loss.
Oct. 19, 1999 – report by the University of Utah's DNA
Diagnostic Laboratory.
Nov. 4, 1999 – announcement
that DNA links Baum to “Baby Jane.”
***
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For more cases of this type, see Serial Baby-Killer Moms.
***
[305-1/8/21]
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Love you Draye...
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