Any time a baby goes missing, a big manhunt breaks out. Fortunately for 7-month-old Shannon Lea Dedrick, her story has a happy ending. Unfortunately for Shannon’s mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer, and babysitter, Susan Elizabeth Brown, the baby’s happy ending will probably get them both jail time. Shannon was reported missing on Saturday, and was discovered yesterday evening hidden in a specially-constructed hiding box under Brown’s bed.
Authorities believe that Mercer and Brown were working together to… I’m not sure what they were trying to do, exactly. If they were going to kill the baby (authorities believe Brown played a crucial role in the disappearance of her 3-year-old son in 1987), then why keep it for nearly a week and why go to the trouble of hiding it? Maybe Mercer wanted to be rid of the baby, Brown wanted to keep the baby, and the two had a whole plan for that?
You never can tell what people are doing, and why they’re doing it, especially when you’re dealing with nutty mothers and wannabe mothers. Maybe Brown was going to be the big hero and Mercer the sympathetic young mother basking in newfound fame? Who knows? The whole thing is nuts, but the important thing is the baby’s safely in the hands of authorities.
Tags: missing baby hidden under bed, baby discovered under bed, baby hidden in chest, Shannon Lea Dedrick, Chrystina Lynn Mercer, Susan Elizabeth Brown, unusual crimes