Baby Shannon case: 'She had everybody fooled'

Not quite.

A 911 call, released Tuesday, became the latest piece of the case against Mercer and her step-aunt, Susan Baker, whom investigators said conspired to make 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick disappear.

“Yes, my little girl… I woke up this morning and my 6-month-old daughter is… my 7-month-old daughter is missing,” Mercer told a 911 dispatcher at 11:23 a.m. Oct. 31, some 10 hours after investigators now believe she carried Shannon to a mailbox at the end of the dirt path to her home and handed her off to Baker.

“My front door looks like it’s been jimmied open today,” she continued.

There was no jimmying, at least not in connection to Shannon’s disappearance, investigators would conclude later, after finding Shannon hidden in a wooden box under a bed in Baker’s home.

Mercer’s report was strange from the moment deputies arrived, as they said she was calm and smoking outside the dirty, roach-infested trailer while the baby’s father, James “Rusty” Dedrick, was distraught, his face streaked with tears.

He didn’t know of the plan, Sheriff Bobby Haddock said. Meanwhile, Baker kept the baby and denied any involvement.

“She had everybody fooled,” Baker’s niece, Tabatha Phillips, said Tuesday in reaction to the arrests. In previous days, she had defended her.

“I never thought she would’ve done it.”

It was through Phillips that The News Herald reached Baker — before investigators confirmed she was a person of interest in the case — and published a story based on an interview with her. In it, Baker said she loved Shannon and that an abusive Mercer must know her whereabouts. She provided an e-mail she sent to Gov. Charlie Crist, pleading for state intervention in the home.

There were no hints, Phillips said, nothing even in hindsight to make her doubt Baker’s story.

What Baker kept hidden from The News Herald — besides the baby — was her history. She was the prime suspect in the 1987 disappearance of her stepson, Paul Baker, who vanished after she put him down for a nap and never was found.

She has been a suspect all along, and served 80 days for the beating of Paul’s sister, Nina, but prosecutors never had enough evidence to indict her in Paul’s case.

Documents obtained Tuesday from The Beaufort Gazette in Beaufort, S.C., show the depth of their suspicions.

The search for 3-year-old Paul was much like the search for Shannon — searchers with dogs scoured a creek bed, swamps, woods and yards and used a Marine helicopter to hover over outer creek banks and marsh grass.

Eight days later, Baker took a polygraph test. Results were incomplete because Baker was stressed, obese and taking muscle relaxers, but the man who administered it said he “believes Mrs. Baker is lying,” according to a report.

Her husband, James Baker, failed a polygraph test four days later.

Those results were not admissible in court.

Deputies investigated tips on Paul’s case. There was a call from a local girl who said she stumbled upon a 7-year-old boy’s body partially buried in the woods. It never was found.

There was Baker’s cell mate, who said Baker told her James had beaten Paul to death and she helped bury him in a neighbor’s yard — pretending the boy was a dead dog. Baker was taking the blame for him, she said.

There was James Baker himself, who one day told authorities he believed his wife had snapped at Paul’s misbehavior, asked Paul to take a walk down to the river, killed him and tossed him in the water.

A day later, he recanted that statement.

James Baker, who was released from custody in Chipley early after investigators found Shannon, did not return messages at two phone numbers seeking comment. He still could face charges.

Phillips said she saw him soon after deputies pulled Shannon from the box. She said he came to her house to profess his innocence, saying he was at work most days and had no idea Shannon was hidden under a bed in the home’s guest room — apparently also used as a computer room.

“When him and Sue were out in the yard and the cops came out, he looked at Sue and said, ‘What the hell have you done?’ ” Phillips recounted. “He claims not to have known, period.”

Investigators said Shannon spent as many as 12 hours in the box. Phillips said it must have been much longer, as Susan Baker was away baby-sitting Phillips’ children during much of the search. On Tuesday evening, the first time The News Herald spoke with Susan Baker, she was speaking from Phillips’ home phone.

“That kid had to be in the box under the bed then,” she said. “That’s what made me feel real bad.”