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CNN Live Today
Abandoned Child
Aired January 29, 2003 - 10:20 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Police in Utah are trying to find the family of a 3-year-old boy who they say was abandoned in a Shopko department store. Authorities are hoping that surveillance tapes at the store, as well as some help from the public can help them unravel this troubling mystery.
Our Rusty Dornin checks in new from Salt Lake City. She's got the latest on this.
What's the word, Rusty?
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the word is this morning from the Salt Lake City Police Department, there is nothing new. And, Leon, this is a mystery that absolutely breaks your heart, a little boy abandoned in the Shopko store in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Now, the store surveillance shows what looks like an average shopping trip, a man walks in holding a little boy's hand, grabs a cart, which is slightly out of frame. But what we don't see, is that he puts the little boy into the shopping cart, hands him a plush toy, and then what we see is him walking out of the store without the boy. The little boy is left alone, sitting in the shopping cart, where he sat for, apparently, nearly an hour, before the customers alerted the store employees, Who then tried to page the mother and kept thinking that someone had to come back for this little boy.
Now he says his name is Jacob. He's 3 or 4 years old, 3 feet tall, about 45 pounds. He was wearing a blue and white striped shirt and jeans. He is also wearing a necklace, a tiny gold cross on his necklace, and a basketball hoop with a basketball going into it.
Now that's significant, because he says his mother, who he says is named Janet or Janette, loves basketball and loves hockey, and drives a black jeep.
Now the little boy has not been able to come up with his last name. He says that he does have four sisters, and that one time he spent time with his grandfather, who's name was Pedro.
Now investigators here say, as I say, there have been no new clues. They have been searching missing persons cases from outside the state. They say there is a possibility that the mother did not know that the little boy was abandoned. Perhaps she thinks he's with a friend or a boyfriend and does not know that this has happened. That's one possibility that they're exploring.
Now the only bit of good news in all of this -- of course, he has been placed with a foster family. They said he is doing very well, and that he has made friends with a little boy in the family his own age. But they say he's very bright, does not look like he's been abused. But a very tragic story, and they're just waiting for somebody to make a phone call -- Leon.
HARRIS: That just amazes me. Particularly if you say he is a very bright young man. My two kids, when they were three years of age, they knew their first and last names, and telephone numbers and everything as well. Have they gotten any tips at all of any kind from anybody who may have been in the parking lot or maybe some of the other employees in the store?
DORNIN: From what we know, there are no new clues providing an idea of who the man was that dropped this little boy off. You might have been able to see from the surveillance video, it's difficult to really make out his -- to identify him. And they've not been able to come up with any names or any other witnesses.
HARRIS: All right, and what part of town is this Shopko store in, Rusty, just in case anybody who's watching this morning may be familiar with that area?
DORNIN: It's called Sugar House Center. It's kind of a strip mall area. It is getting close up toward the Wasatch (ph) Mountains, up toward the university. It's one of kind of the newer areas of salt lake city.
HARRIS: Thanks, Rusty. Rusty Dornin, reporting live on this incredibly tragic story out here in Salt Lake City.
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 January 29, 2003 - 10:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Police in Utah are trying to find the family of a 3-year-old boy who they say was abandoned in a Shopko department store. Authorities are hoping that surveillance tapes at the store, as well as some help from the public can help them unravel this troubling mystery.
Our Rusty Dornin checks in new from Salt Lake City. She's got the latest on this.
What's the word, Rusty?
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the word is this morning from the Salt Lake City Police Department, there is nothing new. And, Leon, this is a mystery that absolutely breaks your heart, a little boy abandoned in the Shopko store in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Now, the store surveillance shows what looks like an average shopping trip, a man walks in holding a little boy's hand, grabs a cart, which is slightly out of frame. But what we don't see, is that he puts the little boy into the shopping cart, hands him a plush toy, and then what we see is him walking out of the store without the boy. The little boy is left alone, sitting in the shopping cart, where he sat for, apparently, nearly an hour, before the customers alerted the store employees, Who then tried to page the mother and kept thinking that someone had to come back for this little boy.
Now he says his name is Jacob. He's 3 or 4 years old, 3 feet tall, about 45 pounds. He was wearing a blue and white striped shirt and jeans. He is also wearing a necklace, a tiny gold cross on his necklace, and a basketball hoop with a basketball going into it.
Now that's significant, because he says his mother, who he says is named Janet or Janette, loves basketball and loves hockey, and drives a black jeep.
Now the little boy has not been able to come up with his last name. He says that he does have four sisters, and that one time he spent time with his grandfather, who's name was Pedro.
Now investigators here say, as I say, there have been no new clues. They have been searching missing persons cases from outside the state. They say there is a possibility that the mother did not know that the little boy was abandoned. Perhaps she thinks he's with a friend or a boyfriend and does not know that this has happened. That's one possibility that they're exploring.
Now the only bit of good news in all of this -- of course, he has been placed with a foster family. They said he is doing very well, and that he has made friends with a little boy in the family his own age. But they say he's very bright, does not look like he's been abused. But a very tragic story, and they're just waiting for somebody to make a phone call -- Leon.
HARRIS: That just amazes me. Particularly if you say he is a very bright young man. My two kids, when they were three years of age, they knew their first and last names, and telephone numbers and everything as well. Have they gotten any tips at all of any kind from anybody who may have been in the parking lot or maybe some of the other employees in the store?
DORNIN: From what we know, there are no new clues providing an idea of who the man was that dropped this little boy off. You might have been able to see from the surveillance video, it's difficult to really make out his -- to identify him. And they've not been able to come up with any names or any other witnesses.
HARRIS: All right, and what part of town is this Shopko store in, Rusty, just in case anybody who's watching this morning may be familiar with that area?
DORNIN: It's called Sugar House Center. It's kind of a strip mall area. It is getting close up toward the Wasatch (ph) Mountains, up toward the university. It's one of kind of the newer areas of salt lake city.
HARRIS: Thanks, Rusty. Rusty Dornin, reporting live on this incredibly tragic story out here in Salt Lake City.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
