Child’s remains wash up in West Bay

[sarahcantiik]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3912395&page=1


Is it really Riley? Police seems sure, but DNA tests haven't totally finished. Riley does look like baby Grace a lot though.

I don't believe one bit about her mother saying child protection took her. I think poor lil Riley died in her own mother hands, how sad. If the mother no longer wants her, why not give her to her grandma or dad, why kill her fgs? I couldn't understand.
I hope the mother and her husband are punished severely for this heinous crime!

[Speedy]

Originally Posted by sarahcantiik

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3912395&page=1 Is it really Riley? Police seems sure, but DNA tests haven't totally finished. Riley does look like baby Grace a lot though. I don't believe one bit about her mother saying child protection took her. I think poor lil Riley died in her own mother hands, how sad. If the mother no longer wants her, why not give her to her grandma or dad, why kill her fgs? I couldn't understand. I hope the mother and her husband are punished severely for this heinous crime!

Well, in the court of public opinion, yes, it's Baby Grace/Riley. They had 8 cases of missing children in the area that fit her description, nine with Riley. Technically, Riley wasn't missing until the paternal side of Riley's family (father and grandmother) saw the artist's sketch, and then they called Kimbery down in Texas. She told the story of how the Social Worker from Ohio came to get Riley, hence no missing person's report on her til now.

It doesn't look at ALL good for Riley. There's been other pictures published of Riley that looks more like the sketch of Baby Grace... so I do think it's her. The DNA tests will prove it, but I seriously feel we already know the ID of Baby Grace.

[Speedy]

From the link above:

Police Have ID'd Baby Grace


Police Make Tentative Identification, Arrest Texas Couple



Kimberly Ann Trenor, 19, and her husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler, 24, both of Spring, Texas, are being held on charges connected to the death and disappearance of Riley Ann Sawyers, Trenor's 2-year-old daughter. Texas authorities said today they are "fairly confident" that the little girl is Baby Grace, an abandoned child found dead late last month on a small island in West Galveston Bay. (Galveston County Sheriff's Office/AP Photo)


The father and grandmother of Riley Ann Sawyers, the toddler who Texas authorities believe is "Baby Grace," publicly wept this afternoon as they demanded justice in the child's "heinous" death.
"It's very rough," said Robert Sawyers, whose high school sweetheart and the mother of his child, Kimberly Ann Trenor, 19, and her 24-year-old husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler, both of Spring, Texas, are being held in connection to the girl's death on charges of injuring a child and tampering with evidence. The two remain in custody in the Galveston County jail on $350,000 bonds.
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"I'm just so stressed out through all of this," Robert Sawyers said. "I keep saying that 'it's hard' would be an understatement."
Texas investigators announced this morning that they are "fairly confident" the little girl found late last month stuffed in a plastic box is missing 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers.
"It was a few weeks ago that I held up this shoe and asked, 'Who is "Baby Grace"?'" Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo, a spokesman for the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, said during a news conference in which he announced the weekend arrests of the girl's mother and stepfather in connection with the little girl's disappearance and death.
The pair could face additional charges, Tuttoilmondo said, including possible murder charges.
The arrests come nearly a month after a fisherman in West Galveston Bay discovered the locked box abandoned on a small island. Inside was the body of a child who had suffered a head wound. Authorities appealed to the public for help, releasing a composite sketch of a child they called Baby Grace. Hundreds of tips from around the world poured into the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.
One of those involved Riley, a little girl who was last seen in July when Trenor reportedly gave her to someone who presented her with custody documents that appeared legitimate, ABC News' Houston affiliate KTRK first reported last week. However, the child was never reported missing to police.
Late last week, detectives requested DNA samples from eight families with missing children resembling Baby Grace. One of the samples was submitted by Robert Sawyers, who still lives in Mentor, Ohio, the town where Riley Ann Sawyers lived until her mother left with the girl for Texas.
The tip that Baby Grace might be Riley originally came from Riley's paternal grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, who phoned investigators after she saw the Baby Grace sketch on the Internet.




Continued:

Police Have ID'd Baby Grace


Police Make Tentative Identification, Arrest Texas Couple



At the afternoon press conference, Sheryl Sawyers said she hoped that additional charges were filed against the pair. "I'm hoping that they are upgraded from 'injury to a child' because she's not just injured, she's dead," Sheryl Sawyers said, clutching an Elmo doll she had hoped to give to her granddaughter for Christmas if she was found.
Trenor, who was just 16 when she gave birth to the baby, had lived with the Sawyers family for two years before moving to Texas to be with Zeigler, who she reportedly met online. "I think, pretty much, he could be anyone he wanted to be on the Internet," Sawyers said of Zeigler. "Maybe he painted a pretty picture and that's what made her move down there."




Tuttoilmondo said it was unclear whether Sheryl Sawyers or anyone else would be able to collect the $20,000 reward offered last week to anyone who provided authorities with information that lead to Baby Grace's identity.
When the little girl's body was found Oct. 29, investigators didn't have much to go on to identify her. They called in renowned forensic artist Lois Gibson who came up with a sketch of the girl whom detectives called Baby Grace. Gibson felt an overwhelming need to help determine the little girl's identity. "I needed to know the name of this girl and I needed this to be over with," Gibson said.
When Baby Grace was found, she was wearing a Target-brand pink, flowing skirt, a pink shirt and white light-up tennis shoes with purple flowers on them. For a brief time investigators looked into the possibility that the child's body was that of Madeleine McCann, a 4-year-old British girl whose disappearance from a resort hotel in Portugal in May has made international headlines, but quickly ruled out a connection to that case.
Riley's biological parents met when her mother was in high school in Mentor, Ohio. Relatives say Trenor met Zeigler over the Internet and moved to Houston to be with him.
It will take several weeks for DNA testing to prove conclusively that Baby Grace is Riley.
While Tuttoilmondo expressed thanks for the public's help in identifying the girl and credited cooperative police work for the break in the case, he also said that tips that poured in have resulted in 22 additional missing girl cases they will continue to investigate.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.

[Speedy]

BREAKING NEWS BABY GRACE:

Breaking new details in 'Baby Grace' murder investigation


BREAKING: Mother told police daughter died in July

Ted Oberg and The Associated Press

(11/26/07) - Eyewitness News just obtained court documents revealing that Riley Ann Sawyers, the little girl thought to have been "Baby Grace" died after a July 24 beating from her mother and stepfather in Spring with leather belts followed by holding her head under water in the bathtub.
Her stepfather then picked 2 year old Riley Ann up by the hair and threw her across the room. Her head slammed into the tile floor.
The details come from an interview her mother gave police on Friday.

We are working on more details and will have a full report on Eyewitness News at 4pm. Authorities said Monday they were "fairly confident" of the identity of a 2-year-old girl whose body washed ashore in a storage bin in Galveston Bay. The girl's mother and male companion remained in custody after their weekend arrest.
Authorities are awaiting DNA test results but believe the girl is 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers of Spring, 75 miles north of Galveston, Galveston County sheriff's Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo said at a news conference Monday.
"It was a few weeks ago I held up this little shoe and asked, 'Who is Baby Grace? Who does this belong to,"' Tuttoilmondo said. "We're now farily confident we know the answer to that."
Tuttoilmondo declined to discuss specifics while the investigation continued.
"There is a whole lot more work to do," he said.
The girl's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 19, and Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, reportedly told relatives that someone claiming to be an Ohio social worker took the child in July. But Trenor never told police she was missing, Tuttoilmondo said.

Trenor and Zeigler were arrested early Saturday and charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence, Tuttoilmondo said. The couple remain jailed in lieu of $350,000 bail each. [STORY CONTINUES BELOW] STORY IMAGES
See photos from the 'Baby Grace' investigation It's unclear whether they are married, Tuttoilmondo said. Riley's father lives in Ohio.
A sheriff's deputy and an FBI agent visited the girl's relatives in Mentor, Ohio, Sunday to deliver the news.
"We simply wanted to ensure personal notice and continue with the investigation of this tragic death," Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said.
Tuttoilmondo declined to say what was found or what the couple may have said about Riley's disappearance.
The two have attorneys, but Tuttoilmondo could not immediately provide their names.
Last week, authorities said the families of eight missing children from across the United States were being asked to provide DNA samples. Tuttoilmondo said they were selected from 110 cases of missing children who matched a description of the girl being called "Baby Grace." The child was described as being 2 or 3.
After hearing about the discovery of the girl in a plastic storage bin Oct. 29, Riley's paternal grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, called Texas authorities to see whether a missing-person report had been filed in Riley's case. When she saw a sketch of Baby Grace, she thought it might be her granddaughter.
Sheryl Sawyers said she has not seen Riley since Trenor moved with the girl to Spring this year to be with Zeigler, whom she met online, the Galveston County Daily News reported Sunday.
Sawyers said that her son and Kimberly Trenor had Riley while they were teenagers and that the three of them lived with her in Mentor, Ohio, for about two years.
The girl's grandfather, Ray Sawyers, told The Associated Press on Sunday that authorities had asked his family not to comment about the case.
Riley's father, Robert Sawyers, 20, has said he hopes his daughter is not Baby Grace.
"I think she might be, but I'm hoping she's not," Robert Sawyers told the Houston Chronicle for a story in Sunday's online edition. "The picture I have and the picture of Baby Grace is so similar -- it kind of scares me."

[sarahcantiik]

The mother is really young. And there is rumors that she is pregnant again? Scary looking husband she's got there.

[Speedy]

Originally Posted by sarahcantiik

The mother is really young. And there is rumors that she is pregnant again? Scary looking husband she's got there.

Dunno if she's pregnant again, but yes, she's young. 19 I think.

Stats show in cases of children dying this young, it's often at the hands of a step-parent. He had no emotional attachment to Riley, so he "got carried away" with disapline. (I bet you that's what his defense attorney will say!) And she stood by and allowed it. It'll also be said that she was afraid of her "chosen" spouse she'd met off the 'Net, and then helped him hide the body.

My heart breaks for this child, but hopefully now she will be put to rest, with her own name. And her family can properly grieve for her.

[twin53]

this story is just beyond horrifying to me

[BagAngel]

Dear God, that poor child deprived of life & that mother bringing another child into the world?

[Roo]

Texas is a death penalty state. I have a feeling the people who did this are going to be learning all about what it's like to be the defendants in a capital murder case....

[krisco]

how could a mother do that to her little one. Both of the people in the mugshot have an evil look about them. This story really makes me sad.

[bobobags]

I keep reading about this story in all the local papers and the local news stations, my Husband and I went out to dinner tonight with some friends and this is what we talked about..........it is just so sad, we all just keep thinking about Riley/Baby Grace.

[nvmybag]

omg. i am about to cry. i shouldn't have read all of that...i am about to throw up. i have a 2 yr old son, and a 1 yr old daughter...they are my heart beat...

[midg613]

When I read about how she was abused....my heart sank. I work in Law Enforcement and I can't tell you how much it hurts me when I see kids harmed. This little darling had no one to protect her....not even her own mom.

[pukasonqo]

they hit her, held her head under water and then he threw her accross the room...and she was all but 2 years old. why?
i know kids can be maddenning sometimes (i got 2) but brutal attacks like this inflicted on harmless toddlers i cannot comprehend. why it had to get to this? i don't understand, if she didn't want the child because of a new relationship why she didn't leave the baby with her dad?
i still don't believe in the death penalty but cases like this really shake my convictions...anyway,they'll have a great time looking behind their backs while in jail, i am sure they are many prisoners waiting to welcome them with open arms.
sorry, reading what this girl went through amkes me so angry...

[Roo]

Originally Posted by Speedy

Stats show in cases of children dying this young, it's often at the hands of a step-parent. He had no emotional attachment to Riley, so he "got carried away" with disapline.

One more thing to note: the stepparent stat is somewhat of a misconception.

Stepparents are lumped into the infanticide statistics, but the majority of perpetrators are biological parents.

Here's are the stats on that:

http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/homicide/children.htm

A parent is the perpetrator in most homicides of children under age 5

To view data, click on the chart.
[D]

Note: Parents includes stepparents.

Of all children under age 5 murdered from 1976-2005 --

• 31% were killed by fathers
• 29% were killed by mothers
• 23% were killed by male acquaintances
• 7% were killed by other relatives
• 3% were killed by strangers

Of those children killed by someone other than their parent, 81% were killed by males.