California Authorities Searching for Missing 3-Week-Old Baby. Parents Arrested as the Search Spreads to Landfills.
The suspicious disappearance of a newborn baby has raised alarms in Palmdale, California. The family of three-week-old Baki Dewees say that his parents left the house on May 3rd and that the baby was never seen again.
The sheriff’s department said in a press release that it initially responded to a report of a missing child at the 2300 block of Carolyn Drive in Palmdale.
"During the early stages, the investigation transitioned from a missing child search to a death investigation," the department said.
The infant's grandmother, Sofia Paulo says that "They just left like normal," adding "It was a normal day. There was nothing out of the blue." Her longtime partner, Brad Parke, was also at the family's home on the day baby Baki was last seen. He recalled taking note of the child's father, Yusef Dewees, 24, leaving the residence without incident. "He didn't say nothing," said Parke. "They were here. They went to the Greyhound [and when he got to the bus station], he didn't have the baby with him. That's facts."
Baki's parents recently moved to Palmdale from Ohio along with their three other children ages 1, 3 and 5-years-old. Parke further discloses that the couple moved to California for better opportunities but when "things didn't work out" Yusef decided to "go his own way".
Jail records show that the mother, Roselani Gaoa, 25, was arrested on April 16 — just two days after Baki was born — on charges of intentional child abuse, reckless child abuse and aggravated child abuse. It is not clear if those charges are for an act committed against Baki or the couple's other children.
According to a Facebook flyer being circulated by the family, Baki's father left from their home in California and went to a Greyhound station in downtown L.A. heading to Ogden, Utah. When he arrived in Utah, the baby wasn't with him.
The baby's father, Yusuf Dewees, was arrested on May 7 on charges of obstruction of justice and making a false statement to be used at a preliminary hearing, the records show.
Both Dewees and Gaoa were arrested and are being held in custody on charges unrelated to the missing boy. They are being held in Ogden, Utah, north of Salt Lake City,
Lt. Omar Camacho told the LA Times Tuesday: "Unfortunately, this started off as a missing infant and now it is a death investigation. We’re searching [the landfill] based on where the investigation has taken us, and unfortunately we weren’t able to find anything today."
There have been no details disclosed as to why the investigation has turned the way it did but, the investigators on the case have started searching the Antelope Valley Landfill.
There are a lot of holes and unanswered questions in this story but we are praying for a better outcome than what is expected.
Anyone with information about this case is urged to call the Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or at lacrimestoppers.org.
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