In the early-1960s when I was a fifth-grader at St. Joseph’s Elementary School in Liverpool, one of my classmate’s families suffered a terrible tragedy. Her older sister, a teenager, had hidden her pregnancy, given birth at home alone and then killed the newborn with a pair of scissors.
When the tiny body was discovered outside her home on Old Liverpool Road, police were called, and the fatality became front-page news not unlike the situation at the Pearl Street Apartments here last week.
While our classmate remained out of school for a week dealing with the family scandal, our parish priest, the Rev. Father Paul Hemmer, made an unprecedented appearance before our class of 50 students. He sternly warned us all to prepare to welcome our classmate back to school without making nasty comments or judgmental remarks about the awful turn of events.
Abandoned Infant Protection
Things have changed over the past five decades.
Parents who – for whatever reason – cannot care for their newborn children do have options.
New York State’s Abandoned Infant Protection Act of 2000 authored by former state Sen. Nancy Larraine Hoffmann of Fabius, protects those who leave babies no older that five days old “with a responsible person at another safe location.” Such locations include hospitals, fire stations and police stations. Persons who safely deliver a newborn to one of those locations are not required to give their names.
As the investigation was underway here last Friday, Liverpool Police Chief Bill Becker referred to the Abandoned Infant Protection Act and its provision to drop off a newborn at one of those safe locations, no questions asked.
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” the chief candidly remarked, “but if the parents are at wit’s end because they’re too young to deal with it or whatever, then it’s an option.”
Certainly that would’ve been far better than the decision that was made by someone here last week, to wrap the baby in a towel and toss it in the trash.
Emotional toll on officers
Chief Becker, who is a father himself, said crime scenes involving young, helpless victims can be emotionally wrenching for first-responders.
“It hits at home for officers who have children,” Becker said.
The first responder to arrive at Thursday night’s crime scene was LPD Officer Sean Pierce, soon joined by LPD Officer Ken Hatter. Both Pierce and Hatter are fathers of young children.
The entire LPD and assisting detectives from the Onondaga County Major Felony Unit all realize that when confronted by such a situation, “They need to put their feelings behind for a moment and press on for the greater good,” the chief said.
As the father of a daughter, Becker said that when he’s investigating such a crime he can hardly wait “to go home and give her a hug.”
Grisly discovery
Michael Denardo, the young man who discovered the newborn’s body inside the dumpster, still can’t quite get over it.
“I can’t believe it myself quite honestly,” he posted on his MySpace page. “I’m still haunted by it. It just freaks me out that someone could do that to their own flesh and blood. To see something like that [is to] be unable to forget something for the rest of your life. It’s messed up.”
And he asked rhetorically, “Why did I have to be the one to find the body?”
