Why would a mother leave her newborn son in a public restroom?

FEBRUARY 10, 2011 12:35 p.m. (1)

As a student at Bob Jones Academy, Jessie Blackham talked about how much she loved kids. She told stories about her niece and carried pictures of the girl in her wallet.

Now 24, Blackham has been charged with felony child abuse after giving birth to a boy at the Bi-Lo Center last Friday night and leaving him in the toilet.

“I’m shocked that she would do that. She was always very good with children,” said Taryn Habegger, a classmate of Blackham’s throughout elementary and high school who has kept up with her on Facebook. “I’m shocked that anybody would do that.”  Continue reading...

 

Child Abuse

It's back in the spotlight with the Blackham case

FEBRUARY 22, 2011 8:52 a.m. (0)

Every so often a case hits the headlines that rips the cover off child abuse in the Upstate; few have reverberated as loudly as the Bi-Lo baby incident, said officials who work with child abuse cases.

Jessie Blackham, a 24-year-old graduate of Bob Jones Academy from Easley, is accused of giving birth in a restroom stall at the Bi-Lo Center and then leaving her newborn son in the bowl of the toilet.

Two quick thinking cleanup personnel at the center rescued the child and Blackham now faces up to 30 years in prison for child abuse. The baby boy is recovering nicely, according to news reports.  Continue reading...

 

Baby's father identified

Baby who was abandoned in toilet now three months old

MAY 19, 2011 11:51 a.m. (0)

A DNA test has confirmed a man who called CNN Headline News’ Nancy Grace and claimed to be the father of the newborn abandoned in a Bi-Lo Center toilet in February is the baby’s father.

During a Family Court hearing last week, Jason Jones, a Berea High graduate in his mid 20s, was found to be the legal father of the now three-month-old boy, said A. Wells Black Jr., his attorney.

Jones saw the baby briefly during the DNA test and was able to hold him for the first time during a one-hour supervised visitation at the Department of Social Services office, Black said.  Continue reading...