Missing baby, mother found in Tennessee

It was a family reunion of sorts.

The search for a mother and her 1-month-old daughter, born addicted to cocaine, ended late Friday, when police arrested Sheila Crump in Johnson City, Tenn., at her biological mother's home.

Crump had apparently not been in contact with her mother for more than 25 years. But police say her mother arranged for her to flee to Tennessee.

An endangered person advisory was issued Thursday for the baby, Vanessa Laureen Ochoa, when police first believed she was taken from a supervised residential treatment facility in Salt Lake City. Working with information Midvale police had already received on Crump, they issued advisories to local police agencies where her relatives were known to live.

"The child and mother are fine," said Johnson City Police Lt. Brain Rice. "The child appears to be in good health, but she needs a bath pretty bad."

Police received information that Crump had contacted a man at a bus station in Nashville asking for money. Going on that information, Midvale police asked police in Johnson City and Nashville to look for Crump at her mother's home.

"We sent the right agencies to the right place," said Midvale Police Sgt. John Salazar.

Crump was arrested at her mother's home. She was booked into the Washington County Jail in Tennessee for investigation of being a fugitive from justice. She is also being held on a charge of child kidnapping, a first-degree felony, in lieu of $100,000 bond. The Tennessee Division of Child Services will care for Vanessa until the Utah Division of Child and Family Services can take possession of the child.

At the age of 2, Crump was removed from her own mother, Glenda Fair, for child neglect, Salazar said. Police believe that Glenda Fair, Crump's mother, purchased a bus ticket for Crump and her child from Salt Lake City to Nashville, after Crump contacted her mother fearing that child welfare workers planned to take her child from her.

The baby was born Aug. 3 in Salt Lake County, according to police. She was born addicted to cocaine because of her mother's drug use, Salazar said. On Aug. 4, a judge put the infant into protective custody.

DCFS worked with Crump to get a support system in place to try to allow bonding between the mother and child, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Sollis.