Detectives look for mother of baby found dead in strawberry field

May 23, 2012 | 10:29 am

Concerned about the well-being of the mother of a newborn baby found dead in a strawberry field, Ventura County detectives said they are focusing their investigation on finding the woman.

A farmworker found the baby's body Monday morning near a row of poppies bordering the field in the 3200 block of Central Avenue near Camarillo, authorities said. Evidence suggests the baby was born in the field, they said.

"We don't know the circumstances behind the baby being there, and we do not know if the mother is physically or mentally OK," Sgt. Joe Evans said. "This had to have been very traumatic for her."

Investigators are reaching out to area hospitals, clinics, schools and the public in looking for the woman, he said.

"We're hoping that people out there have information about a pregnancy that ended mysteriously this weekend without the signs of a baby," Evans said.

An autopsy was performed Tuesday but didn't yield much information, Evans said. Additional tests are pending. He declined to say whether the baby was a boy or a girl, citing the ongoing investigation.

At this point, Evans said, investigators are reaching out "any way we can think of," hoping that a witness or even the mother herself will call. Anyone with information is asked to call Evans at (805) 384-4721, Det. Dean Worthy at (805) 384-4745 or Det. Jose Lopez at (805) 384-4723.

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Questions unanswered in abandoned baby case
By Cheri Carlson
Posted May 25, 2012 at 9:34 p.m.

Joyce Zimmer looks at an angel statue she placed in memory of a newborn she and her daughter found in their front garden late one night in January 2010. The baby survived, but police never found the mother.
Safe haven law

Under state law, a parent or person with lawful custody can safely surrender a baby confidentially within 72 hours of birth. The Safely Surrendered Baby Law requires the child to be taken to a public or private hospital, designated fire station or other safe-surrender site, according to the California Department of Social Services. More information is available at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

An angel statue was placed by Joyce Zimmer in her front garden in memory of a newborn she and her daughter found late one night in January 2010. The baby survived, but police never found the mother.

PHOTO BY JOSEPH A GARCIA
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Joyce Zimmer (right) and daughter Jenifer Helchowski remember finding a newborn in their front garden late one night in January 2010. The baby survived.
The baby was born Jan. 15, 2010. She weighed 9 pounds, 5 ounces, and spent the first five days of her life at a county hospital.

The nurses called her Rose Gale.

Joyce Zimmer only met her once and only for a matter of minutes. But she thinks about her all the time, especially on the infant's birthday — the anniversary of the night Zimmer found her tiny body, dirty with dried blood and wrapped in a black hoodie, outside her Ventura home.

A lot had to go right that night.

"It could have been a whole different story," Zimmer said. "It was January. It was a night we were having a big rainstorm. I think it started raining about an hour after we got her. And it was cold, really cold."

Rose Gale is one of four babies reported abandoned in Ventura County in the past decade since a state law created a safe surrender program to prevent such acts. Three of the babies survived.

On Monday, the fourth was found dead in a Nyeland Acres strawberry field. Authorities say the child was born there. But the cause of death remains unclear, including whether the baby was alive at birth.

Authorities are searching for the baby's mother but so far have few leads.

Ventura police Sgt. Rick Murray hit a similar wall in January 2010. Police searched through the night after Zimmer found the newborn girl outside her home.

Authorities checked with doctors who may have treated the mother before or after the birth, talked to neighbors and ran down possible leads, including searching the FBI database for a DNA match. But nothing turned up.

In Murray's case, however, the baby survived.

"The big difference is this child was dropped off at a populated area where there was access to pedestrians or residents who could hear the child," he said.

A few hours old

Zimmer's daughter, Jenifer Helchowski, was visiting her mother's home on Gale Way in a quiet neighborhood that night more than two years ago.

The street, busy with kids playing basketball and parents chatting while the sun was up, was quiet and chilly by 7:45 p.m., when Helchowski ran to her car to grab a diaper for her daughter. Standing there, she stopped to listen to something that sounded a little like an injured cat or a crying baby.

The sound was coming from a grassy spot by the curb, where her mother had planted a rose bush. She called to her mother to bring out a flashlight.

Helchowski shone the light near the bush and saw a black hoodie in a bundle. She opened the hoodie and started screaming.

"Someone had tried to take care of her," Zimmer said. "She had baby powder on her. She was very dirty, though. There was still dried blood."

The umbilical cord had been cut, leaving a jagged line.

After calling 911, Zimmer, a medical assistant, brought her inside and laid her on a towel on the kitchen table to make sure she wasn't bleeding. The newborn looked maybe a few hours old, if that.

"She was fine. She was crying," Zimmer said. "I just wrapped her in a towel to keep her warm."

A cold case

Gale Way soon filled with ambulances and patrol cars. Police checked with doctors in the area and investigated other leads, including a DNA match, but nothing turned up.

"At this point, it's a cold case," Murray said.

The baby, affectionately called Rose Gale in those first days, was put in foster care and later adopted, he said.

"This is a very unusual case. We've had children dropped off at hospitals or fire stations. Never have we had one that was just dropped off at the side of the street," he said.

"An abandoned child is obviously a horrific event. You don't just leave a child on the side of the road and hope someone picks them up."

But there is some solace in that the child now has a home with an adopted family, he said.

Ventura County Children & Family Services officials declined to provide any information about the case, citing confidentiality laws.

'No questions asked'

Within days of finding the baby, Zimmer placed an angel statue in the spot by the rose bush. Roses haven't thrived there, but Zimmer can't bring herself to tear it out.

"It just doesn't seem right," she said, standing next to it this week.

Zimmer wants to raise awareness about California's Safely Surrendered Baby Law, under which a parent can turn over a child confidentially at a hospital, fire station or other designated site within 72 hours of birth.

"They need to know there are places and there are no questions asked," Zimmer said.

The law took effect in 2001 and gave parents or guardians a legal avenue to surrender a baby, said Oscar Ramirez, a spokesman for the California Department of Social Services.

Statewide, the law has worked 448 times as of March 31 of this year, he said. Eight babies have been safely surrendered in Ventura County.

Zimmer doesn't know what made someone place a baby outside her home. She and her daughter both worked at the same medical office at the time, but they had no pregnant patients.

They both were wearing their scrubs when they were outside earlier that day and think someone saw them and picked that spot. Some in the neighborhood reported seeing two people parked in a car on the corner of the street and think the baby might have been born inside.

"I really think she was trying to come to the door, but the motion light came on," Zimmer said of the mother. "I think she got scared."

She still has a list of unanswered questions. But mostly, she and her family think about the baby they still call Rose.

"It would kind of be nice to just see her," Zimmer said.

"Just to see her," Helchowski added. "To know she's OK."

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- vcstar.com

More than six months after the body of a newborn was found in a Camarillo strawberry field, DNA evidence led to the mother being arrested and charged with murder.

Detectives say 20-year-old Rosalba Moran of Oxnard gave birth in the Camarillo-area field in the 3200 block of Central Avenue and left the newborn to die. A farm worker found the baby's body.

Months of detective work, including the use of familial DNA, went into the arrest. More than 100 DNA swabs were collected from field workers in the area the day the baby was found.

One of those swabs led detectives to Moran, a relative of one of the field workers. She was already in jail on unrelated charges. Forensic scientists processed Moran's DNA and confirmed she was the mother of the baby.

Moran was arrested on Dec. 21 and is being held on $1 million bail.

It's unclear why she left her baby to die. Detectives say it didn't have to be this way. The safe surrender law allows someone to give up a baby legally.

"In Ventura County, you can drop off a baby at any county fire station or any county hospital if you don't want to have the child," said Capt. Don Aguilar of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities are trying to identify the father of the baby. Anyone with information is urged to call the Ventura County Sheriff's Department at (805) 383-8786.

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