ISHAM PATEL - 1 yo/ Suspect: Neha Patel (Mother) - Lakeland FL

LAKELAND, Fla. --
A 32-year-old woman believed to be suffering from postpartum
depression and accused of killing her 1-year-old son was apprehended at
the Tampa International Airport on Friday, authorities said.
Isham Patel died from blunt force trauma at the hands of his mother, Neha
Patel, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Friday. The family lived in
Lakeland, about a half-hour from Tampa.
"We need to find Neha,"
Judd said during a news conference. "We've got to protect her from
herself. We have a moral obligation to find her and to try to save her life."

Friday afternoon, workers at the parking garage at the airport
spotted Patel's minivan. Airport police officers took her into custody;
she is being interviewed by Polk detectives and will be booked into the
Hillsborough County Jail.
Patel's husband, Rasesh Patel, told
authorities that his wife and son went missing Thursday while he was at
work. At one point, Patel's credit card was traced to a gas station in Ocala.
Authorities say Neha Patel came to her Lakeland home Friday
morning with the baby wrapped in a blanket and told her husband that
she had killed him.
Judd said the boy had been born four months
premature. He said Patel had threatened to harm herself before and was
suffering from postpartum depression - but wasn't taking her medicine.
Neha Patel told her husband she was also going to kill herself and left their home.
"I will be dead by tomorrow," she told her husband.
She last used her credit card at 5:33 a.m. in Tampa but hasn't been traced
since. Detectives believe she is driving a blue Toyota minivan with the
Florida tag A10 0NJ.
Judd said Patel has been acting erratically
all week. She abruptly quit her job as a CVS pharmacist on Feb. 12, and
her husband told officers that she spoke of jumping off a bridge or
building. She also mentioned that she would like to die in the Smoky
Mountains, Judd added.
The sheriff said that if Patel is found she will get the help she needs, then be charged in the death of her son.
"There's not a momma in Polk County who wouldn't have taken this child," he said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/17/2646775/sheriff-fla-mom-killed-her-baby.html

POLK COUNTY, Fla. -- The search is over for the mother of a slain baby.



Deputies said Neha Patel is accused of killing the 1-year-old boy.
According to the Sheriff's Office, Isham Patel died from blunt-force trauma.
The mother, a Winter Haven pharmacist, disappeared on Thursday and
returned home Friday morning with the deceased child.
She was found just after 1 p.m. Friday at Tampa International Airport.
Earlier, authorities asked for help in locating her.Parking
lot employees called the airport police, saying that a vehicle fitting
the description of Patel's had just entered the long-term parking
garage. She will be booked into the Hillsborough County Jail.Deputies
said the woman's husband, Raseesh Patel, told them she suffers from
postpartum depression and has not been taking her medication.


Raseesh Patel told deputies that when his wife returned home, she
would not answer any questions about the baby's death. He said she
became angry when Raseesh placed a phone call to her father and stormed
out, threatening to take her own life.The Patels have another child, a daughter, according to deputies.

Read more: http://www.wesh.com/news/30485584/detail.html#ixzz1mjcyWszT

Lakeland mom accused of killing baby denied bond


TAMPA --

A Lakeland woman charged with first-degree murder in the
death of her baby son made her first court appearance Saturday morning
and, as expected, was denied bond.

Neha Patel, 32, didn't say a word to a Hillsborough County judge. She has since been transferred to the Polk County Jail.

Patel was arrested by Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies
Friday after Tampa International Airport police found her sitting in a
van in the airport parking garage.

According to Polk County Sheriff's investigators, she
admitted she killed her 1-year-old son, Ishan, after slapping the child
in the face twice as he crawled toward her, left him in a tub full of
water and chose not to perform CPR or call 911 when she found him
unconscious "10 minutes" later.

• MORE: Detectives: Mother admits hating son; let him die by drowning
  

Deputies said Patel's husband, Rasesh, returned home Thursday
afternoon when he couldn't reach his wife by phone for much of the
morning, and friends and family he contacted had no idea where she was.

He determined his wife and Ishan were gone, but her cell phone and medication had been left behind.

The husband began looking for his wife after picking their 4-year-old daughter up from preschool.

Around 5:30 p.m., Rasesh Patel received a call from American
Express to report a card transaction at a Shell Gas Station in Ocala.
Patel "Googled" hotels in the Ocala area and drove to Ocala to look for
his wife.

When he couldn't find her, he returned home with his daughter. Around 7:30 p.m., Rasesh Patel reported his wife and son missing.

Patel told detectives he drove to Tampa General Hospital
later that evening with his daughter and a friend to see if Neha was at
the hospital. He said his wife had driven there before because she was
found of the place after Ishan was born there premature and the two
stayed at the hospital for 4 months after the birth.

The mother and son were not there. Patel returned home again.

Deputies said Neha returned home early Friday morning, between 2 a.m. and 2:40 a.m., with the baby wrapped in a blanket.

She refused to answer her husband's questions, but eventually
told her husband she "killed the baby and said, ‘I will be dead by
tomorrow,'" authorities said.

Neha climbed into bed and refused to talk further.

Rasesh called Neha's father and she became angry when she
realized what he was doing. Rasesh said his wife said she was going to
kill herself and left their home again.

Deputies said the woman left the home again in the light blue 2008 Toyota Sienna van that was found Friday at the airport.

Rasesh called 911. First responders performed CPR on the
baby, but the child was dead. Judd said the baby had been "dead for an
extended period of time and appears to have had significant trauma to
the body."

Neha was a pharmacist at the CVS pharmacy on Soctrum Loop Road in north Lakeland, but quit on Sunday, according to officials.

Those who live in the Lakeland area neighborhood where the
Patels live were having trouble grasping the incident that has rocked
their community.

“You can’t imagine how anyone could be in a position where
they could feel so desperate that they would do something like that,"
neighbor Doug Crabtree said. "It’s not comprehensible, but I suppose for
someone going through it, it’s a different thing.”

"Bad things happen, you know?" neighbor Bob Benoit said. "People snap. It's just unfortunate."

According to a TIA spokesperson, an employee with Ampco
Parking, which manages the airport's lots, contacted airport police at
1:13 p.m. Friday to report a vehicle matching the description of Patel's
was seen driving into a long-term parking garage.

Ampco Parking officials notified airport police Patel's van was parked against a wall on the fourth level of the parking garage.

Two officers took Patel into custody and took her to a
holding cell at the airport. Polk County Sheriff's detectives were
contacted and interviewed Patel.

Patel was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail on Friday evening.

Search Timeline

Thursday:

10:30 a..m - Father tries to call wife from work, no answers

1:30 p.m. - Father returns home to find wife, 1-year-old son missing

Father picks up 4-year-old daughter from day care, begins own search

5:30 p.m. - Credit card company informs father credit card used in Ocala

Father drives to Ocala, doesn't find wife or son, returns home

7:30 p.m. - Father reports wife, son missing

Father drives to Tampa General Hospital, doesn't find wife or son, returns home

Friday:

2 to 2:40 a.m. - Mother returns to home, climbs into bed, refuses to answer questions

Father calls wife's father, wife gets mad

Mother allegedly tells husband she killed son, hands over son wrapped in blanket

Mother leaves home, goes missing again

2:43 a.m. - Father calls 911, baby determined to be dead for some time

5:26 / 5:33 a.m. - Mother spotted at TIA, card used at gas station

11:30 a.m. - Polk Co. Sheriff's Office announces mother missing -

1:13 p.m. - Parking official spots mother, contacts airport police

1:19 p.m. - Airport police take mother into custody

http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2012/february/383607/Sheriff-Grady-Judd:-Suicidal-mom-sought-in-1yearold-babys-homicide?cid=rss

BARTOW | A grand jury has indicted a 32-year-old Lakeland woman on charges of premeditated first-degree murder in the drowning death of her infant son.



During a brief Friday hearing, Polk County Judge Susan Barber Flood ordered Neha V. Patel remain in jail without bail.

In addition to murder, Patel faces two other criminal charges.

She is accused of aggravated manslaughter of a child for "failing to provide supervision" to her 1-year-old son, Ishan R. Patel, while the boy was "in a garden tub half filled with water," according to the grand jury's indictment returned Thursday.

Patel also is charged with aggravated child abuse for "violently striking" the boy, the indictment states.

Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty against Patel.

Authorities have reported Patel suffered from severe postpartum depression and had threatened to commit suicide in the past.

An arrest report from the Polk County Sheriff's Office provides the following account:

Patel's husband, Rasesh, 33, said he discovered his wife and son were missing on Feb. 16, and he spent hours trying to locate them without success.

Rasesh Patel told authorities his wife came home about 2 a.m. the next day with the dead child in a blanket and put the body in his cradle.

"Rasesh asked Neha what she did, and she replied, ‘Oh, he dead,'" the report states. "Rasesh asked Neha how did it happen, and she replied, ‘He drown in the tub in the morning.'"

Neha Patel attempted to go to sleep in a nearby bedroom until she heard her husband calling family members about the death of their son.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20120302/NEWS/120309868?p=2&tc=pg