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| NewsWednesday, October 24, 2007 4:08 PM CDT |
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Police find body of missing baby in mother's attic
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A seemingly distraught Johni Michelle Heuser can be heard crying while her mother talked with an emergency dispatcher Friday morning to report that Heuser’s baby daughter, Harmony Jade Creech, was missing. During the 911 call, Heuser wailed, sobbed and retched as she clung to the child’s father, Sgt. Ronald Creech II, who expected a joyous reunion with his daughter after a 15-month deployment in Iraq. But Heuser’s wails and sobs were an act, Creech and law officers say. The baby’s decomposing remains and clothing were found in a diaper box in the attic of the Harnett County home where the 911 call was made. Investigators say they think the baby had been dead for several weeks, and neighbors had complained since this summer of a foul odor coming from the red-brick home. Heuser, 25, has been charged with first-degree murder. Creech, a native of Alabama, had just arrived at the home he rented for Heuser before he was deployed. He had not seen his child since November, when he spent 15 days with her during a mid-tour leave, said Maj. Tom Earnhardt, a spokesman with the 82nd Airborne Division, on Tuesday. Earnhardt released a statement from Creech that said Heuser had convinced him and others that Harmony was alive. “Harmony’s mother was good at deceiving everyone who would ask about Harmony and where she was,” Creech said in the statement. “The stories were credible, and everyone believed her. My goal for the last year was to complete my mission and return home to my children. I have returned home to a tragedy I would not wish upon any parent of any child.” The Harnett County Sheriff’s Office released a recording of the emergency call that Heuser’s mother, Brenda Irizarry, made to report Harmony was missing from her crib. Heuser sobbed quietly at first and tried to quiet her other three children. Irizarry calmly explained to the 911 dispatcher that the child’s father had just returned home from Iraq and wanted to see his child. Irizarry said that the window in Harmony’s room was open and that she was gone, along with her diaper bag and clothing. Heuser’s quiet sobs dissolved into wailing when her mother asked her what the child wearing -- pink pajamas with the words “Daddy’s Girl” across the front -- Heuser answered in a high, quavering voice. Heuser told her mother to tell the dispatcher she saw her daughter at 11:30 p.m. the night before. “It was right after you left when I fed her,” Heuser said to her mother between sobs. Local and federal authorities had doubts about Heuser’s story from the onset of their investigation. Harnett Sheriff’s Maj. Gary McNeill said Tuesday that Heuser flunked a certified voice stress test administered by the sheriff’s office and she flunked a polygraph test by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “The statements she was making to us indicated she was deceptive,” said McNeill, who added that the investigation continues. (c) 2007, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.). Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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