Atlanta detectives said Thursday afternoon they don't believe a rescued 11-month-old had been in the woods all night where he was found.
About 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, police got a call about Durante Cochran, who disappeared from a relative’s home in the 1400 block of Beecher Street in southwest Atlanta, Lt. Charles Hampton said in a news release.
Officers with the Special Victims Unit launched an immediate search of the area that included the use of police dogs.
"To no avail, we were not able to find the child," Hampton said.
Investigators then brought all the occupants of the house to police headquarters and asked FBI agents to interview the children who were in the house at the time.
About 9:30 a.m., police got a call from a contractor who said a woman had found Cochran in a wooded area near the 800 block of Gaston Street, about a block and a half away from where the boy was reported missing.
“It’s sort of unbelievable he would have walked or crawled to that area on his own,” Hampton said.
Valerie Victom told local and federal authorities she knew they had been searching all night for a missing baby with curly black hair, brown eyes and a green shirt with yellow stripes. Hampton said Victom may have been staying in an abandoned house at the time she found the baby.
She told police, who were still nearby, she came across a man who said he heard a baby crying. She followed his directions to the sound and found a scared, healthy-looking baby sitting under a tree in a T-shirt and wet diaper.
He reached for Victom like she was his mom.
“I got you, baby,” she screamed.
Victom’s discovery ended a frantic, hours-long search.
"We really don’t believe at this time the baby was where he was found the entire time," Hampton said.
Five adults and five children live in the house, Channel 2 Action News reported, and Hampton said later that the house was in poor condition without electricity. It was being powered by a generator.
Furthermore, Cochran's mother and father weren't there when police started the search. "We had to call the mother to the scene," Hampton said.
Police discovered that the mother, Bridget Smith, failed to appear in court on an unrelated charge of child neglect and arrested her. Hampton didn't immediately know if the neglect charge was related to the 11-month-old.
The family told police Durante’s grandmother and 6-year-old brother put him to sleep on the living room couch about 9 p.m. Two hours later, the family woke up to the front door open and the baby gone. His bottle was gone, too.
Roshawna Jenkins tearfully pleaded for her nephew’s return.
“Just bring him back,” she said early Thursday. “That’s all we ask.”
“I’m still a nervous wreck,” Victom said shortly after finding the boy. “God just put me in places sometimes for a reason.”
Durante was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for a general check, but police said he appeared fine. He was later placed in custody of the Division of Family and Children Services, Hampton said.
Hampton said investigators have theories as to what might have happened, but he isn't ready to discuss those.
"One thing we did notice is several people who were searching were overwhelmed with mosquito bites, and when the baby was found he didn’t have any noticeable bites," Hampton said.
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