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American Morning
Police May Know Identity of Boy Found Wandering Alone
Aired May 28, 2003 - 08:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Police may now know the identity of the boy they found wandering alone in Bakersfield, California 10 days ago. They got a call from a woman who said she was his mother. She said his name is Jesus Perez Florez, not Mateo, and her name is Sochi (ph). Police believe she really is the boy's mother, based on information she left in a phone message. The message, in Spanish, asked authorities to find a home for Jesus because she can no longer take care of him.
We've asked the public guardian for Cook County in Illinois to tell us about the next steps in the process of finding a home for the boy.
Patrick Murphy joining us now this morning from Chicago.
Thanks for being here, Patrick.
PATRICK MURPHY, PUBLIC GUARDIAN: Thanks for having me.
COLLINS: Obviously, the police are still looking for this woman known as Sochi. What happens if authorities can't find her?
MURPHY: Well, there's two things. First of all, they publish against unknown parents and then they can terminate the parental rights and the kid can be placed up for adoption, or, alternatively, he could be placed in a foster home.
But I would suspect the police and the authorities would try to find the kid's mother. It sounds like she's very depressed. She may have some problems. The kid was well taken care of, apparently. So there doesn't seem to be neglect here. And frequently you see abandonment by parents who become overwhelmed. They're very poor. They get depressed. And it would seem this woman needs some help.
COLLINS: Certainly it would seem that.
Let me ask you, before you made that point, you were talking about how long it would take to get the child into foster care or a home.
Any idea?
MURPHY: The kid could be placed in a permanent foster home right now, and I assume he is. And then that foster home, assuming it's permanent, could be the adoptive home. To terminate parental rights and to get the adoption going might take up to six months.
COLLINS: Patrick, in your experiences in working with children, how many times have you seen this sort of thing happen, abandonment?
MURPHY: It's very rare to see this kind of abandonment where the parent disappears. I've seen it maybe once or twice. Once I'm aware of where a kid was found here in Chicago on skid row a number of years ago and no one knew his name, his parents or anything else about him. I represented that child myself.
It's a horrible thing for a kid to go through. And, again, you can only have sympathy for the parent, under most circumstances.
COLLINS: Well, with that particular experience and this one now, any idea if the parents were located, if they would be criminally charged?
MURPHY: You know, that's up to the authorities and obviously if they, if they find extenuating circumstances or if you get a, you know, a hard-nosed prosecutor, you can always prosecute, because what the woman did, or the woman and man, assuming there's a father around, is criminal. Abandonment of a child is criminal. It could even be a felony.
But on the other hand, so often in these cases you do find extenuating circumstances, particularly whereas here, the boy appears to be very well taken care of. It sounds like the woman could have been an illegal immigrant. The usual story is the man deserts her, she's all alone, she has no money and she figures what can I do to help my kid out?
COLLINS: Yes, we want to make sure that we go ahead and put a phone number, too, up on the screen in case anyone has any idea of where his mother may be. Sochi, once again, the name that we believe we're going with here. That phone number is 661-327-7111.
Patrick Murphy from the Cook County Public Guardian Organization, thank you so much for being with us from Chicago this morning.
MURPHY: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 28, 2003 - 08:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Police may now know the identity of the boy they found wandering alone in Bakersfield, California 10 days ago. They got a call from a woman who said she was his mother. She said his name is Jesus Perez Florez, not Mateo, and her name is Sochi (ph). Police believe she really is the boy's mother, based on information she left in a phone message. The message, in Spanish, asked authorities to find a home for Jesus because she can no longer take care of him.
We've asked the public guardian for Cook County in Illinois to tell us about the next steps in the process of finding a home for the boy.
Patrick Murphy joining us now this morning from Chicago.
Thanks for being here, Patrick.
PATRICK MURPHY, PUBLIC GUARDIAN: Thanks for having me.
COLLINS: Obviously, the police are still looking for this woman known as Sochi. What happens if authorities can't find her?
MURPHY: Well, there's two things. First of all, they publish against unknown parents and then they can terminate the parental rights and the kid can be placed up for adoption, or, alternatively, he could be placed in a foster home.
But I would suspect the police and the authorities would try to find the kid's mother. It sounds like she's very depressed. She may have some problems. The kid was well taken care of, apparently. So there doesn't seem to be neglect here. And frequently you see abandonment by parents who become overwhelmed. They're very poor. They get depressed. And it would seem this woman needs some help.
COLLINS: Certainly it would seem that.
Let me ask you, before you made that point, you were talking about how long it would take to get the child into foster care or a home.
Any idea?
MURPHY: The kid could be placed in a permanent foster home right now, and I assume he is. And then that foster home, assuming it's permanent, could be the adoptive home. To terminate parental rights and to get the adoption going might take up to six months.
COLLINS: Patrick, in your experiences in working with children, how many times have you seen this sort of thing happen, abandonment?
MURPHY: It's very rare to see this kind of abandonment where the parent disappears. I've seen it maybe once or twice. Once I'm aware of where a kid was found here in Chicago on skid row a number of years ago and no one knew his name, his parents or anything else about him. I represented that child myself.
It's a horrible thing for a kid to go through. And, again, you can only have sympathy for the parent, under most circumstances.
COLLINS: Well, with that particular experience and this one now, any idea if the parents were located, if they would be criminally charged?
MURPHY: You know, that's up to the authorities and obviously if they, if they find extenuating circumstances or if you get a, you know, a hard-nosed prosecutor, you can always prosecute, because what the woman did, or the woman and man, assuming there's a father around, is criminal. Abandonment of a child is criminal. It could even be a felony.
But on the other hand, so often in these cases you do find extenuating circumstances, particularly whereas here, the boy appears to be very well taken care of. It sounds like the woman could have been an illegal immigrant. The usual story is the man deserts her, she's all alone, she has no money and she figures what can I do to help my kid out?
COLLINS: Yes, we want to make sure that we go ahead and put a phone number, too, up on the screen in case anyone has any idea of where his mother may be. Sochi, once again, the name that we believe we're going with here. That phone number is 661-327-7111.
Patrick Murphy from the Cook County Public Guardian Organization, thank you so much for being with us from Chicago this morning.
MURPHY: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
