Reunited mother, daughter seeking court records

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JIM SALTER

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A woman who recently reunited with her 49-year-old daughter filed a petition Monday seeking court files and adoption records that might shed light on what exactly happened in 1965 at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis, where the mother says she was told her newborn baby was dead.

The petition filed in St. Louis Circuit Court doesn't seek money, but simply seeks access to any records and files on behalf of Zella Jackson Price, 76, and her daughter, Melanie Diane Gilmore.

Attorney Albert Watkins said the suit is an effort to uncover any information "that would explain the genesis of Baby Diane."

FBI spokeswoman Rebecca Wu said Monday that the agency is aware of allegations that babies may have been taken at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, and encouraged anyone with information to call the local office. Wu refused to say whether the FBI has opened a human trafficking investigation.

FULL story at link.



Brenda Stewart wipes away tears Monday, May 4, 2015, in Clayton, Mo., as she recounts the story of how she was told her child had died shortly after giving birth at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. Stewart was 16 and unmarried when she gave birth to a seemingly healthy girl on June 24, 1964, at the hospital. A nurse took the child after birth and returned a short time later to tell Stewart that the baby had died but she now believes her baby may have been stolen and sold to adoptive parents. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a946976a6c2b47049949458a99abf8b6/reunited-mother-daughter-seeking-court-records

[jwirr]

1. Of course she may be right that the hospital took her child but back in those days it was not

unusual for a parent of the pregnant teen to sign the child way without the teens consent. It was often done that way. The parent did not have the resources to take care of another mouth in the family or did not want the girl to leave school. Schools often kicked pregnant girls out of schools so she would have hidden her pregnancy and this kind of thing would happen.

I wonder how they found each other again? That is the miracle.

[LisaL]

2. This woman wasn't a teen.

She is 76. Her daughter is 49. Do the math.

[cosmicone]

7. From the OP

Stewart was 16 and unmarried when she gave birth to a seemingly healthy girl on June 24, 1964, at the hospital.

[LisaL]

11. Stewart is NOT the woman who was reunited with her daughter.

[jwirr]

9. The article says she was 16 and unmarried when this happened. I was going by that . Read

under the picture.

[LisaL]

10. That photo shows a different woman.

Not the one who was reunited with her daughter.

[jwirr]

12. Wonder why they did that? Very misleading. Thank you that does make it sound like fraud.

However what I said did happen often. Just not in this case.

[Beauregard]

13. +1. nt.

[Contrary1]

3. The article has a mistake...

MS. Stewart was either 16 when she gave birth, or she is 76 now. Can't be both if the baby was born in 1965.

[LisaL]

4. Ms. Stewart isn't the woman who was reunited with her daughter.

Her daughter is still missing.

[Contrary1]

5. My mistake...

I watched a video a couple weeks back about a woman whose grown children found her mother. Tragic that this went on. I have to wonder how many more are out there.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Found more info.: Poor black women who believe a Missouri hospital stole their babies want justice

Poor black women who believe a Missouri hospital stole their babies want justice

hospital in St. Louis, Missouri is under suspicion for stealing black babies from their young and poor mothers about 50 years ago, Jezebel reports.

The suspicion arose after 76-year-old Zella Jackson Price reunited with her 50-year-old daughter Melanie Gilmore in April. Price, then 26, gave birth to a baby girl in 1965 at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. Shortly after, she was told that the baby was dead, but was never shown the body of her baby, nor did she receive a birth or death certificate.

Meanwhile, Gilmore was put into foster care. She said that her foster parents had always said that her birth mother gave her up for adoption, according to AP.

After the video of their reunion became viral, a number of women in St. Louis came forward with similar stories. These women are all black and were poor and young at the time when they gave birth at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, which had been closed in 1979 and became a senior living apartment in 2003. The mothers said that the nurses at the hospital told them that their baby had died but never gave them birth or death certificates, in violation of “normal protocol,” according to the AP.

Price is asking the state to open an investigation. Her attorney said in a letter to Missouri governor Jay Nixon that he suspected the “hospital coordinated a scheme ‘to steal newborns of color for marketing in private adoption transactions.’” He also said he will file a lawsuit on behalf of the women to get state-issued birth and death certificates.

More:
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/poor-black-women-who-believe-a-missouri-hospital-stole-their-babies-want-justice/

[Radael]

8. Very sad

Injustice is everywhere