News Story of the Year: Baby abduction shocks community

BY LAUREL MYERS

At 8 am on Nov. 1, a baby girl entered the world at the Sudbury Regional Hospital. Less than five hours later, the newborn was abducted from her mother’s care, concealed by a sweater and smuggled out of the hospital.

A Code Yellow (Infant) alert was immediately issued at the hospital. The police followed with an Amber Alert, putting the entire province on the lookout. Pictures of the abduction pulled from the hospital’s surveillance cameras were released to the public.

Eight hours later, the devastating incident was brought to an end due to the collaborative work of the hospital staff, police, media and the community. The baby was found unharmed in Kirkland Lake, Ont., – a 300-kilometre drive north of the city – in the care of Brenda Batisse, 29, who was arrested and charged with abduction.

A psychiatric assessment following the incident showed Batisse  – the mother of two girls, ages 8 and 5 – to be suffering from a major depressive disorder.

The evidence presented at Batisse’s bail hearing painted a vivid picture of deception and premeditation.

Family and friends of Batisse had been led to believe she was pregnant and scheduled to deliver her baby by C-section on Oct. 30 at the North Bay General Hospital.

According to Batisse’s first statement to the police, she had been beat up in Kirkland Lake recently and soon after stopped feeling the baby moving in her womb. She allegedly went into her bathroom, delivered a five-month-old stillborn baby and cut the umbilical cord with toenail clippers. She claimed to have taken the baby to the North Bay hospital and left it there for her aunt and uncle to pick up, in order to give the baby a proper burial. However, the hospital had no record of her visit, and her aunt admitted she had no knowledge of it either.

Batisse let everybody believe she was still pregnant, in particular, Trevor Schram, her common-law spouse, because “Trevor wanted a baby boy,” and the future of the their relationship depended on it, she said in her statement.

Upon arriving in Sudbury on Oct. 31, Batisse visited the hospital at one point and located the maternity ward.

Videos from the hospital’s surveillance cameras, taken on the day of the abduction, showed Batisse in three different outfits, the final outfit appearing to be white hospital scrubs. Reports from three mothers, who were approached by Batisse in their hospital rooms, put her in the hospital hours before the abduction took place.

The mother of the abducted baby told police a woman matching Batisse’s description had attended her room on two different occasions.

“A woman appearing to be a nurse entered two times that morning,” Detective Const. Sandra Dicaire read from the mother’s statement to police during the bail hearing. “The second time – wearing white hospital scrubs – she asked to weigh my baby.”

The mother insisted on accompanying “the nurse” to weigh her baby, but had to use the washroom first. Once inside the washroom, Batisse closed the door and fled the room with the baby, Dicaire read.

Batisse wrapped the baby in her sweater “to conceal it and hide it from the elements,” she said in her statement.

In her second statement to police, the mother of two said, “I wasn’t myself when I did this. I’m not the type of person to do this. If I knew then what I know now, how it would affect my girls, I never would have done it.”

In a letter of apology to the mother of the baby, Batisse said, “My intentions were never to hurt anyone but just to make my family whole again... My life has been quite cruel to me. I’ve had many losses and I just wanted to bring home a beautiful baby to my girls... There was one point just outside of Sudbury I wanted to turn around and bring your baby back but I thought they’d take me away from my girls.”

At her bail hearing held in Sudbury court, Batisse was denied bail and returned to police custody to await her trial. However, defence attorney Berk Keaney applied for an immediate review of the proceedings.

“The most significant factor to me is that this woman has been demonized in the public since this incident occurred because no one understood her personal circumstances,” he said.

“What about detention necessary to maintain the public’s confidence in the administration of justice,” argued assistant Crown attorney Len Walker in his summations at the review. “The public had a great interest in this case. The only thing you can do to make the public so involved and at such a wide scale is to take a baby.”

At the review, which was held before a Superior court judge, Batisse pleaded guilty to the charge and was subsequently released on bail. She is scheduled to return to court to determine her sentencing in January, after she has received psychiatric assistance. An abduction charge carries a maximum 10-year sentence.