Mom Sought After Baby Abandoned With Note, Orlando FL
Mom Sought After Baby Abandoned With Note POSTED: 3:57 pm EST January 4, 2007 UPDATED: 6:25 pm EST January 4, 2007 Stephanie Tucker ORLANDO, Fla. -- An abandoned 1-year-old baby girl was left on the side of an Orlando house Saturday night, and police are now trying to locate the child's mother. Stephanie Tucker, 19, left her child in a stroller on the side of a house on West Livingston Street, according to police. The homeowner found the baby girl along with a note from Tucker, saying, "I cannot take care of my kid. Please take care of my child," police said. The woman who found the child discovered the baby's original hospital bracelet in the stroller. Orlando police said Tucker is from Homestead and are now trying to locate her but aren't sure if she's still in Orlando. The baby is OK, Local 6 News reported. Police issued an arrest warrant for Tucker for child neglect by abandonment. Police said Tucker likely took a bus from Homestead to Orlando and randomly selected the house where she left her child. Watch Local 6 News for more information about this story. http://www.local6.com/news/10672502/detail.html

Aunt Talks About Mother Accused Of Abandoning Her Baby POSTED: 4:22 pm EST January 5, 2007 UPDATED: 5:35 pm EST January 5, 2007 MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. -- Eyewitness News has learned the grandmother of a baby abandoned in Orlando is trying to get custody of the girl, while other family members are pleading for the baby's mother to turn herself in to police. Investigators said Stephanie Tucker left her daughter in front of a random home on Westmoreland Avenue in Orlando with a note and a few baby supplies. The aunt of the missing 19-year-old mother said she's shocked her niece would abandon her baby. But, Tammy Kitwell said, there’s an open door on Merrit Island for Stephanie when she's ready. "We're ready to help her. We didn't know she was having problems like this," Kitwell said. Those problems include trouble holding down a job and keeping a stable home in south Florida. Kitwell told Eyewitness News that Stephanie's mother has had custody of baby Australia, who was born a year ago November 9. But, somehow, two weeks ago, the child was given back to the young woman. It's a mystery where Stephanie wanted to end up when she and the baby boarded a Greyhound bus December 30, bound for Orlando. A note was left under the wheel of the abandoned stroller that was found on West Livingston Avenue, half a black from the bus station. The spells out a dire predicament, how mommy can't take care of the baby, how daddy is dead and how she has no family: "Please, if you find me, find me a good home. My mommy has no home, no job, no money. She's loves me, but she can't take care of me, and my daddy is dead, and I have no family." The note is what's most shocking to Kitwell, who said she last saw Stephanie when her family moved to back to her Florida hometown of Homestead from Kentucky three years ago. "I always babysitted her. She's like my favorite niece. I work in daycare, I got kids of my own, I learned a lot from Stephanie and she learned a lot from me just growing up together," she said. Kitwell said she believes Stephanie only knows that her aunt lives somewhere in Central Florida, but admits she has no idea where she could be as police want to talk with her and may charge her with child abandonment. "Just hoping and praying Stephanie’s okay and turns herself in and comes home and ends this," she said. Kitwell said she called detectives with the Orlando Police Department on Friday morning after seeing Stephanie's photo on Channel 9. The baby's grandmother met with a lawyer Friday. She is trying to obain an emergency custody order by Monday. The infant is currently in the care of Child Services in Orlando. http://www.wftv.com/news/10681387/detail.html