Missing Baby Found Alive, Mother Arrested

The mother of a seven month old baby missing since Saturday is in jail tonight.

Christina Mercer is accused of giving her baby away then lying to investigators about her disappearance.

Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock fought back tears as he described a 2 foot by 3 foot cedar chest where Shannon Dedrick was found alive Wednesday night. Sheriff Haddock says Susan Baker, the baby's aunt who detectives believed conspired with Mercer, put a blanket and baking soda in the box to mask the smell of little Shannon's soiled diaper.

"She was in the box almost twelve hours," said Haddock. "Five or six of us called our wives to let them know we had found the child. There were a lot of grown men crying, shedding tears."

Shannon's discovery ended a five day search, which involved state, local and federal investigators. Detectives returned to Baker's trailer on Orange Hill Road Thursday, but no one was home.

During a court hearing Thursday afternoon, a judge set Mercer's bond at $75,000 and forbid her to have contact with her baby.

Baker, who was convicted in a 1987 child abuse case and questioned in an unsolved disappearance of a missing South Carolina girl the same year, has a bond of $150,000.

Shannon's father, who is not charged in the case, didn't want to talk to News Five as he left the courthouse. Shannon, at least for now, is in the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families, and a custody hearing is expected next week.