BOSTON (AP) - The state was granted temporary custody Friday of a baby believed born to a member of a religious sect but whose whereabouts are unknown.
The Department of Social Services in obtaining custody cited ``grave concern'' over the deaths of two other children born to sect members.
Officials said Rebecca Corneau, 33, no longer looked pregnant during a court appearance this week; she had appeared to be pregnant earlier.
``We have not yet seen a baby. We are terrifically concerned about its health and well-being,'' department spokeswoman Carol Yelverton said. ``We are trying to determine where the child is, if the baby is alive.''
Authorities said they were turned away from the couple's Attleboro home Thursday when they tried to determine if the woman had given birth.
Corneau and her husband, David, have been ordered to appear in court Tuesday on the custody motion.
In 1999, the Corneaus' stillborn son, Jeremiah, was secretly buried in Maine with his infant cousin, Samuel Robidoux.
The couple's four other children live with relatives who are not sect members.
Prosecutors allege the Robidoux baby starved after his aunt said she had a vision instructing his parents to feed him nothing but almond milk.
Samuel's parents - sect leader Jacques Robidoux and his wife - face murder charges in a trial expected to start in March.
"Mass. launches search for baby in sect's homes"
State officials win custody of the infant, but investigators last night could not
find the baby they believe was born recently to Rebecca A. Corneau, a member of
a religious sect who has been ruled an unfit mother.
BY PAUL EDWARD PARKER (Projo.com/Massechusetts, Jan. 5, 2002
ATTLEBORO -- A Juvenile Court judge yesterday awarded the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
custody of the baby presumed to be born recently to a member of a religious
sect that has been investigated in the deaths of two other babies.
But investigators came away empty-handed as they searched into the night to
find the baby and determine whether it is safe -- or even alive.
Bristol Dist. Atty. Paul F. Walsh Jr. initiated a care-and-protection action in
Juvenile Court on behalf of the baby, based on the fact that the mother,
Rebecca A. Corneau, appeared pregnant in photographs in the fall and no longer
did at a court appearance this week. Investigators have since talked to
neighbors, who said they saw Corneau, appearing pregnant and having trouble
breathing, being taken from her home by family members a few weeks before
Christmas.
Investigators have declined to say what, if any, evidence they have that
Corneau gave birth to the baby they now allege is in need of state protection.
The hunt for the baby included searches of the sect members' homes at 196-198
Knight Ave., in Attleboro, and a house at 15 Brook St., in Rehoboth.
"There was no evidence of a baby in either home," Carol Yelverton, a
spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services, said late last night.
"There was no infant in the home, and there was nothing in the home to
suggest there is a baby living there."
Yelverton said investigators will pursue the case over the weekend. "We
will continue to actively look for the baby," she said.
Corneau, 33, and her husband, David Paul Corneau, 34, have been served a
summons to appear Tuesday in Attleboro Juvenile Court and to surrender the baby
at that time.
The move is reminiscent of a courtroom drama that began in 1999, when Jacques
D. and Karen E. Robidoux, also members of the insular sect, refused to tell a
judge where their 1-year-old son, Samuel, was. Karen Robidoux was jailed
briefly until invoking her Fifth Amendment right against implicating herself in
a crime. Her husband remained in jail until Nov. 13, 2000, when a grand jury
indicted the couple on murder charges in Samuel's death. By then, David Corneau
had led investigators to a remote hilltop in Maine, where the sect had buried
the bodies of Samuel and of the Corneaus' baby, Jeremiah.
Since the indictments, both Robidouxs have been held in lieu of bail, along
with Jacques Robidoux's sister, G. Michelle Mingo, who was indicted as an
accessory to an assault on Samuel. They are scheduled for trial March 4.
No charges have been filed in the death of Jeremiah. Investigators have said
they believe the child died moments after birth in August 1999 of natural
causes that could have been treated if the sect did not shun modern medicine.
But Jeremiah's death led to the court ordering Rebecca Corneau held at a facility
for pregnant inmates when she gave birth to a girl in October 2000.
The court has ruled as unfit parents all the sect members who have minor
children and removed the children from them, clearing the way for the children
to be adopted.
The latest case heated up yesterday afternoon when social services petitioned
the Juvenile Court for custody of the baby. In the afternoon, several members
of the sect, including the Corneaus left the Knight Avenue home, eventually
winding up at the Rehoboth address. In the early evening, investigators,
equipped with an infant car-safety seat, knocked on the doors of the houses in
Attleboro and Rehoboth, but were rebuffed. They returned around 8 p.m.,
accompanied by the police and armed with search warrants.
Yelverton said she does not believe they seized any evidence in the searches,
and they did not appear to be carrying anything as they walked from the houses.