SHANNON DEDRICK - 7 months - Chipley FL

Two people will be charged in
the disappearance and safe return of 7-month-old Shannon Lee Dedrick.
The child’s mother Crystal Mercer, and her aunt, Susan Baker, face
arraignment for multiple charges at 3 p.m. Thursday at Washington
County Courthouse.
Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said that Baker’s husband,
James Baker, has been released from custody but remains under
investigation.
Mercer’s charges include interference in child custody, a
third-degree felony; false report regarding a missing child, a
first-degree misdemeanor; false report of a crime, a first-degree
misdemeanor; and contributing to the delinquency of a child, a
first-degree misdemeanor.
Baker is charged with neglect of a child with aggravated
circumstances, a second-degree felony; interference in child custody;
false report regarding a missing child; false report of a crime; and
contributing to the delinquency of a child.
Haddock gave more details on the timeline involving the case that
led to a 4-day manhunt involving some 100 searchers that ended at 9:55
p.m. Wednesday when Shannon was found under Baker’s bed in a 2x4 cedar
box.
“She was in good health,” Haddock said. Investigator Kenny Brock
found the child as investigators searched every inch of the singlewide
trailer on Orange Hill Highway beginning at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
“Baker gave consent to search and as soon as we found the baby we issued a search warrant,” Haddock said.
Based on evidence obtained so far Haddock said that the baby was
turned over to Baker at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. A 911 call
that the baby was missing was received at 11:23 a.m. and the search was
launched immediately.
Baker had emailed Gov. Charlie Crist urging the state to take action
to ensure the health and safety of Shannon. Baker’s 6-year-old son
disappeared in Beaufort, SC in 1987 and has not been found.
Haddock said that investigation has not yet revealed a motive in the case.

The search for 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick may have ended on a happy note Wednesday night in Chipley.
But the legal problems for one of the suspects are just beginning.
Beaufort, South Carolina authorities are reopening the 1987 disappearance case of 3-year-old Paul Baker.
Babysitter Susan Baker has been a suspect for a number of years.
Baker's family still doesn't believe she's guilty of either crime.
The arrest of Shannon Dedrick's mother, Crystina Mercer and her babysitter,
Susan Baker, has left many people in the Chipley community in shock.
Several people still can't believe the two are responsible for her disappearance, including members of Baker's family.
"I couldn't hardly believe it. I thought she was a good person."
Baker's half-sister, Donna Shirley, says she talked to Susan several
times during Shannon's disappearance and never sensed she had anything
to do with it.
"Matter of fact, Susan seemed like she was real upset about it."
Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock confirmed Baker was not only Shannon's babysitter, but also her aunt.
Her sister-in-law, Valerie Shirley, still believes she's innocent.
"I believe she was framed. I believe Tina set her up on that."
Mercer and Baker are facing a long list of criminal charges for their involvement in her disappearance.
In addition to that, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office sent an
investigator down to Chipley to see if there was any new evidence to
link Susan Baker to the 1987 disappearance of Paul Baker.
Susan was the boy's babysitter and married his dad, James, after he divorced his first wife.
She claims she put paul down for a nap, only to come back and find him missing.
South Carolina authorities have never been able to find Paul Baker.
Susan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for abusing the couple's daughter but was later released.
"Sue's not a violent person at all, I've known her for probably 40 years now," says her half-brother James Shirley.
"She wouldn't hurt nobody. Not a child, nobody."
Despite what has happened, Baker's family members say they will still stand behind her.
"She's still my sister and I love her."
We spoke to Susan Baker's husband, James, late this afternoon.
He says he had no idea baby Shannon was inside the house the entire time.
Both women refused interview requests.

When Florida’s Department of Children and Families took custody of
Shannon Lee Dedrick this week, they already were very familiar with the
infant and her family. The family had been under their eye almost since
her March 11 birth.
Shannon’s mother, Crystina Lynn Mercer, her father, James Dedrick,
and other household members were the subject of an investigation that
began March 23 after the agency received a complaint on its Florida
Abuse Hotline. The complainant, whose name has not been released, said
Mercer was “emotionally handicapped, bipolar” and was “always looking
for places to dump Shannon off,” according to a review of DCF’s actions
in the case that was released by DCF earlier this week.
Mercer, 25, reported Shannon missing last Saturday but, according to
investigators, she had given the baby to Susan Baker, 50, the child’s
baby sitter and stepaunt, and a suspect in the disappearance of her own
stepson 22 years ago. The baby was found by the Washington County
Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday night stuffed in a box under a bed in
Baker’s home. Baker’s stepson was never found.
Baker was charged with aggravated child abuse and is being held on a
$125,000 bond on the latest case. Mercer was charged with deserting a
child and is being held on a $75,000 bond. Both faced additional counts
of interference with child custody, filing a false missing child
report, filing a false report of a crime and contributing to the
dependency (not delinquency, according to the judge at the women’s
arraignments) of a child.
Shannon is “safe and doing well,” Barbara Ash, a DCF spokeswoman,
said Friday. She cited privacy concerns and declined to say who had
custody of the baby. Shannon’s grandmother (Mercer’s mother), Kandis
Boyer, said the baby is still in the custody of Florida’s Department of
Children and Families. She added that she supports her daughter.
Boyer said she is determined to gain custody of Shannon.
“This isn’t over yet,” she said. “It might be a long battle but we’re here till the end.”
Washington County sheriff’s officials said Friday morning they would
comply with Florida’s public records law and release reports, 911 calls
and other documents about the case. But by late Friday afternoon, no
one was an-swering the phone at the Sheriff’s Office and it had not
released the documents.
DCF involvement
When investigators questioned the adults in Shannon’s home following
the initial complaint earlier this year, they all said they did not
smoke marijuana or cigarettes around the baby. However, Mercer and
Dedrick did admit to smoking marijuana and tested positive for the
substance in a urinalysis, investigators wrote. The investigators noted
that the home was “messy but not hazardous” and that the family had
baby formula, Shannon was dressed appropriately and did not have any
scars or bruises. Officials also noted that Healthy Start, Social
Security and the Women, Infants and Children programs already were
involved in the family’s life.
The investigators asked Mercer and Dedrick to join a substance abuse
evaluation and prevention program and they agreed to cooperate. The
investigators determined the baby’s risk level was “intermediate” and
left the baby in Mercer and Dedrick’s custody, officials wrote.
Government officials checked on the situation March 25, March 36, April
15, April 22, May 13 and May 15 and each time determined that Shannon
was at risk level of “intermedi-ate.”
On Aug. 12, investigators responded to a complaint someone had
shaken the baby. All of the family members denied shaking the baby and
Shannon smiled at everyone in the house and would often smile
“spontaneously and responsively.” Government representatives then
checked on the family Aug. 13, 14, 17, 24 and Sept. 3, 8, 10 and 14.
DCF officials are tasked with trying to keep families together
unless the children have been physically, mentally or sexually abused,
neglected or threatened with harm, according to the agency’s Web site.
“It really is important for children to be with their families,” Ash
said. “So what we’re really trying to focus on is giving the family
services, whether it’s mental health, substance abuse treatment or
parenting skills.”
Investigators have certain things that they look for when
determining if a child should be removed from a home but each case is
taken on an individual basis, Ash said.
“Our primary focus is keeping children safe and protecting them,”
Ash said. “If we can, we want to keep the families together.” If
investigators believed the child was in danger, Ash said, they would
have taken her from the family during an earlier investigation.

The story of 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick captured the nation's attention last week.
While her safe rescue was a happy event, the story does not yet have a happy ending. A custody battle is now underway.
"My little girl is the sweetest thing that ever walked, well, crawled right
now. I love her to death and I'll do anything for her," says Rusty
Dedrick, Shannon's father.
Rusty says Shannon's arrival earlier this year was a surprise. But he couldn't wait for her to arrive.
"I got all giddy, excited, I was gonna be a dad for the first time."'
He says he quickly became attached to the baby, and it's been difficult
for him not to see her everyday. That's why he's fighting for custody.
"She's my little blessing."
Dedrick is fighting Kandis Boyer for custody. Boyer is Shannon's grandmother.
Her daughter, Crystina Mercer is Shannon's mother. Mercer is facing
charges for allegedly lying to police.
She reported Shannon missing on Halloween morning, but police say she gave
the baby to babysitter Susan Baker. Baker is also facing charges.
Boyer did not return our calls for an interview.
During a Tuesday morning hearing, Rusty 'consented to dependency', agreeing to
follow a Department of Children and Family case plan.
Dedrick's sister, Rebecca Padgett, says he has a tough battle, trying to get his life on track.
"It's just starting for us I believe, knowing she was safe and everything but
now just him having to fight so hard to get her back, it's just gonna
be a really drug-out, long ordeal," says Padgett.
Even though Padgett would like for her brother to win custody, she says she just wants what's best for little Shannon.
"I hope she ends up with her dad but if not, you know just so she's safe."
Crystina Mercer did not consent to dependency at this morning's hearing. She is scheduled to appear for trial on December 15.

Police reports and a 911 call transcript has been released in a
missing baby case. Investigators found seven-month-old Shannon Dedrick
in a wooden box, under her babysitter's bed. When Crystina Mercer called 911 on Halloween morning, Washington County investigators first thought it could be a prank. "I
woke up this morning and my six-month, ugh my... seven-month-old
daughter is missing. My front door it looks like it's been jimmied open
today," She said in a 911 call. That was 25-year-old Mercer's
story to police. Reports say she was emotionless as she told them she
awoke to her door being open, and her baby gone. After searching
the entire area for five days, investigators say they found the child
under her babysitter, Susan Baker's, bed. Dedrick was alive and healthy. Investigators
say about 10 hours before Mercer called 911, she and Susan Baker
arranged a swap, but didn't let anyone know about it. During
police interviews, Baker cried when told the child was missing. She
even told deputies that Mercer wanted to kill the child, and that's why
she babysat Shannon during the week. Initially, deputies did a
quick search of Baker's home. But it wasn't until a few days later they
found the baby in a box, under her bed. "Shannon Dedrick was
found in a two-by-three foot cedar chest underneath a bed. Understand,
under the bed. It was shoved to the back and covered with material to
deceive anyone that was looking," Washington County Sheriff Bobby
Haddock said. Investigators say the baby was kept in that box for more than 12 hours at a time. Shannon is now in the custody of the Department of Children and Families. Baker is charged with:

• Neglect of a child with aggravated circumstances – 2nd degree felony
  

• Interference with child custody – 3rd degree felony
  
• Filing a false report regarding a missing child – 1st degree misdemeanor
  
• Filing a false report of a crime – 1st degree misdemeanor
  
• Contributing to the delinquency of a child – 1st degree misdemeanor
  

Mercer is charged with:

• Interference with child custody – 3rd degree felony
  

• Desertion of a child – 3rd degree felony
  
• Filing a false report regarding a missing child – 1st degree misdemeanor
  
• Filing a false report of a crime – 1st degree misdemeanor
  
• Contributing to the delinquency of a child – 1st degree misdemeanor
  

This isn't the first time Susan Baker has been involved in a missing child case. In
1987, Baker told authorities her three-year-old stepson disappeared
from the family's Beaufort, South Carolina home while she was napping.
A massive manhunt turned up nothing. Baker and her husband were
extradited to South Carolina in 2000 to be charged in the child's
disappearance. However, they were never indicted and the child was
never found. Baker did serve prison time after authorities
investigating her stepson's disappearance found a six-year-old girl in
the home, badly beaten.

Hundreds of miles and 22 years of mystery separate baby Shannon Dedrick and toddler Paul Baker.
Susan Baker will always tie them together.
Baker remains jailed in Chipley on charges stemming from the
nationally publicized search for 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick, who was
found hidden in a box under Baker’s bed four days after her mother
reported her missing. Baker was her baby sitter and, investigators say,
wanted to raise her.
Baker was a baby sitter and later stepmother to 3-year-old Paul, who
went missing in 1987 and never has been found. Baker served time for
abusing his sister, then-6-year-old Nina Baker, and remains the prime
suspect in Paul’s disappearance.
Few said they believe Baker when she says she had nothing to do with it. Least of all: Nina and her mother, Lynda Solorzano.
As investigators worked to tie together two mysteries decades apart,
The News Herald tracked down both women, who agreed to tell their
stories.

Painful memories
Nina Baker Hernandez is 29 years old now with three children of her
own, but she still remembers being kept in a locked closet by her
stepmother, Susan Baker, two decades ago in South Carolina.
Her memory has spared her some of the rest.
“I know I don’t remember everything,” she told The News Herald in an
interview last week about her past with Baker. “I don’t remember how I
got the scars on my back. I have scars on my fingers. … I don’t know
how I got those, either.”
After Paul disappeared March 5, 1987, authorities discovered
6-year-old Nina was bruised and suffering from broken bones. They
removed her from the Baker home, and Baker, then 27, was arrested soon
after that. She later was convicted on charges of assault and
aggravated battery.
Her 10-year sentence ended after just 80 days (credit for time
served) and eventually she and Nina’s father, James Baker, moved to
Chipley.
Hernandez still remembers her punishments. She remembers the days
when she was first learning to count, when Baker punished her for
faltering at the number 10.
For each mistake, she said, Baker repeatedly dunked her head in a
bathtub filled with water, bringing her up at intervals for short
breaths. When she finished, the water was red with blood.
For the most part, she has put the abuse behind her. “I can’t dwell on it” and still raise a family, she said.
But the reduced sentence struck her as unfair, and for years after
Baker’s release, Hernandez wondered if her brother, Paul, was dead or
alive and, either way, if Baker made him disappear.
Asked if her father could be involved, too, she said, “Either she’s
that good at lying and covering things up, or he’s that blind.”
Nina and Paul’s real mother, Lynda Solorzano — the woman James Baker
left to marry Susan, the family baby sitter — said she still has no
clues to explain what happened to her son. Susan and James Baker, in
the early stages of the case, accused her of taking Paul.
“I hope they just make a big sensation out of it and really get her
this time,” she said of the Chipley case. “I’m wondering how many
children she was involved with before then. She always was a baby
sitter for people; that’s how she got involved with Nina and Paul and
James.”
For 22 years, she and Hernandez questioned each missing child case in the news.
“I’ve always expected that eventually her name would come up,”
Hernandez said. “Every single one that came over, I would sit there and
watch until they would tell me who was involved.”
Now that it has, “I hope they convict her,” she said. “I hope she doesn’t get off this time.”

Becoming a suspect
At the Beaufort County, S.C., Sheriff’s Office, about 40 miles north
of Hilton Head Island, Paul Baker’s missing-child case file is about an
inch thick. Dozens of pages of reports and interview summaries released
by the Sheriff’s Office show Susan Baker was a suspect in the case
almost from the start — and even before she became a suspect, she was
less than cooperative with investigators.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) also worked the
case; James Baker was a sergeant at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
The day of Paul’s disappearance, Susan Baker told investigators she
had put him down for a nap at 11 a.m., and when she awoke — she’d been
fast asleep, too, knocked out by a combination of muscle relaxers and
alcohol — Paul was gone. The initial report lists her as the
complainant and Linda Mott (now Solorzano) as the suspect.
Searches through a nearby river bed and marsh grass turned up
nothing. Over the next several weeks, and eventually years, the many
tips called in to investigators led nowhere. People suggested Paul was
dumped in a landfill or a bog, buried like a dog in a neighbor’s yard,
sold for cash or sent to Sarasota. Some tips were debunked; others
simply couldn’t be traced.
Meanwhile, a nervous 6-year-old Nina, when investigators asked about
her brother, answered, “Mama told me not to talk to you about (him),”
according to one report.
Asked last week if she can remember anything she might have seen or
overheard, Hernandez said, “There’s a lot of things I don’t remember. I
can’t tell you why I don’t remember; I just don’t. I wish I did. I’ve
searched my mind.”
Days after the initial report, James Baker failed a polygraph. Susan
Baker’s polygraph was listed as inconclusive because she was stressed,
obese and taking pills. Even before she took it, she told the
polygrapher, “You know I’m going to fail,” according to a report.
Afterward, she said, “I failed, didn’t I?”
But in various interviews with investigators, James Baker began to
recount how Susan “was too hard on the children,” how she beat Nina
nearly to death and, eventually, how he believed “Susan had killed
(Paul) and threw him in the river.”

‘I don’t think the truth’s in her’
James Baker suspected his wife, he said, because the day after Paul
went missing, Susan, suffering from a chronic sore back, wanted to take
a rare walk to the nearby river, Battery Creek. According to the
report, James Baker thought maybe it was “to check to make sure the
body couldn’t be seen.”
Investigators next turned to Susan Baker, who maintained in her
interview she did not know where Paul went, but acknowledged both
children were straining her and “she didn’t get married to raise
children.”
She said “that she was the one that got up when the children (were)
sick, that she was the one that put her arms around them and
comfort(ed) them,” an investigator wrote.
Paul was very sick for four days just before he disappeared,
sometimes soiling his bed and his clothes. Susan said “she felt he was
antagonizing her by whining and wetting in his pants.”
She began to yearn for an escape to Florida, where she could “wash her hands of the whole mess,” the report said.
She was becoming a suspect in the disappearance when James Baker
recanted his statement, a sudden change of mind. The investigation
continued down other alleys.
An investigators’ timeline of the case shows deputies serving a
March 24, 1987, search warrant found blood splatters inside the Baker
home and sent samples to the FBI. It’s unclear what happened to them.
Months later, when investigators came back to the Bakers for new written statements, Susan Baker had grown paranoid.
“Mrs. Baker stated to her husband that the only reason we wanted
another statement was to see if they lied and to compare statements,” a
deputy wrote.
Investigators even hypnotized Susan Baker’s cell mate (from Baker’s
stint in jail for the abuse of Nina), who spoke of a boy’s body in a
garbage bag but not much else.
“She lies to everybody,” Solorzano said of Baker. “I don’t think the truth’s in her.”

Losing the bet
The investigation plodded into the late ’90s. About that time,
Hernandez came to Chipley on what she thought was a simple visit to her
father. Authorities were monitoring it.
In 2000, Beaufort County and NCIS investigators filed aggravated
battery arrest warrants for the Bakers. Washington County sheriff’s
deputies made the arrests.
The Bakers waived extradition, but a grand jury eventually found insufficient evidence to indict on that charge.
Investigators had another angle, though — a photocopy of a letter,
the original somehow lost, believed handwritten by Susan Baker during
her 1987 stint in jail. Addressed to James Baker and signed, “Your
friend,” the letter suggested Paul was safe in North Carolina.
Armed with that, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office filed a child
neglect warrant — long-awaited charges related to Paul’s actual
disappearance — and the charges stuck. They believed the letter was
Susan Baker’s ploy to divert suspicion, and that, in itself, was
suspicious.
A grand jury indicted the Bakers, but that was as far as the case went.
Prosecutors dropped the case because the child neglect charge was a
misdemeanor count in South Carolina, so even if the Bakers were
convicted, they wouldn’t be severely punished. Authorities decided to
wait for more evidence to file more serious charges.
It was a gamble they lost.
The Chipley case has not opened any new leads into Paul’s
disappearance, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Cpl. Robin McIntosh said
Thursday, but Hernandez said she hopes for the justice she was denied.
“I know you can’t prosecute someone for something they’ve done in
the past,” she said, “but I hope the judge does take that into
consideration.
“I would like to know (about Paul) either way. Either tell us he’s
dead and at peace, or tell us, ‘I sold him,’ so we know he’s alive. Let
us breathe, either way.”

The disappearance of 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick sent shock waves throughout the nation earlier this month .
Pictures of the missing Chipley baby and the stories surrounding her family appeared all over the media outlets.
The widespread attention has caused a Circuit Judge to close the upcoming dependency hearing to the public.
It's hard not to recognize this little face.
7-month-old Shannon Dedrick became one of the biggest news stories in
the country after she disappeared for five days in early November.
"Washington County 911."
"Yes, my little girl, I woke up this morning and my 6-month old
daughter, uh..7-month-old daughter is missing. My front door looks like
it's been jimmied open today."
The baby's mother, Crystina Mercer, made this 911 call to the Washington County Sheriff's Office on October 31st.
"When's the last time you saw the child?"
"Last night when I put her to bed."
"Is there anyone who could have her?"
"Not that I know of. But I'm fixing to call my sister-in-law and my
other sister-in-law and see if either one of them stopped by."
Many
people breathed a sigh of relief when they learned she was alive and
safe after authorities found her inside a wooden box, under a bed in
her babysitter, Susan Baker's, home.
"We are the proud papas of a little girl."
Authorities arrested Baker and Mercer for their involvement in her disappearance.
But the excessive media coverage has now become a concern as Mercer heads to court for a dependency hearing next month.
She appeared in court on Tuesday, barely making eye contact with
Shannon's father, Rusty Dedrick, as the attorneys unanimously requested
to close the hearing to the public.
Family Physician Dr. Lisa
Bailey, who examined Shannon shortly after she was found on November 5,
testified the excessive attention could cause her more damage if it
continues.
"I think it could, I think she could easily be known as the child that was found in a box for many, many years."
"When her name was googled, there was over 7 million hits that came up and there were 35 videos that came up on YouTube."
A Guardian Ad Litem case coordinator also testified the media's
presence could compromise the identity of Shannon's current foster care
situation.
"It's been reported by the foster parent that she takes
extra precaution when taking the child out in public, she covers her
face with a blanket or sheet so people in the community can't see her."
Circuit Judge Allen Register ruled to close the court proceedings based
on these reasons and the possibility of Shannon and her parents'
medical issues being discussed.
Mercer's dependency hearing is still set for December 15th.