The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MISSING-BABY STORY: DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
Mother of found infant is arrested on earlier neglect charge.
Atlanta detectives said Thursday afternoon they don’t believe an 11-month-old spent all night in the woods where he was eventually found. And an investigation during the search led to his mother’s arrest on an earlier charge of child neglect.
Police were called around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday about Durante Cochran, who had disappeared from a relative’s home in the 1400 block of Beecher Street in southwest Atlanta, Lt. Charles Hampton said in a news release.
Officers with the Special Victims Unit launched a search that included using police dogs but didn’t find the boy.
Investigators then brought all the house’s occupants to police headquarters and asked FBI agents to interview the children. Five adults and five children live there, Channel 2 Action News reported, and Hampton said later that the house was in poor condition without electricity. It was being powered by a generator.
When police started the search, Durante Cochran’s mother and father weren’t there. “We had to
call the mother to the scene,” Hampton said. They discovered the mother, who police have not named, had failed to appear in court on an unrelated charge of child neglect, and they arrested her. Hampton didn’t immediately know if the neglect charge was related to the 11-month-old.
About 9:30 a.m., police got word that a woman had found Durante Cochran in a wooded area near the 800 block of Gaston Street, about a block and a half away from where he was reported missing.
“We really don’t believe at this time the baby was where he was found the entire time,” Hampton said. “It’s sort of unbelievable he would have walked or crawled to that area on his own.”
Hampton said, “One thing we did notice is several people who were searching were overwhelmed with mosquito bites, and when the baby was found he didn’t have any noticeable bites.”
Valerie Victom, who found the boy, told local and federal authorities she came across a man who said he heard a baby crying, followed his directions to the sound and found a scared, healthy-looking baby sitting under a tree in a T-shirt and wet diaper.
He reached for Victom like she was his mom, she said. “I got you, baby,” she screamed.
“I’m still a nervous wreck,” Victom said shortly after finding the boy. “God just put me in places sometimes for a reason.”
Durante was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for a general check, but police said he appeared fine. He was later placed in custody of the Division of Family and Children Services, Hampton said.
Hampton said investigators have theories as to what might have happened, but he isn’t ready to discuss those.