Search continues for missing baby in Chipley

CHIPLEY, Fla. — For the past two months, Tanya Wilt and Tina Blaylock received periodic visits from a mother and her docile infant daughter who lived next door in this Washington County, Fla., town.

They’ve been neighbors for the past two months. Their mobile homes are separated by just a few feet at the end of a dirt road off Brown Street in Chipley.

“(The mother) came by a lot to borrow cigarettes or use the microwave to pop popcorn,” Wilt said. “She would have the baby sometimes. They bragged about that baby everywhere, all the time. She was a totally happy and content child, always. We never once heard her cry.”

Something happened early Saturday morning that has investigators as well as search and rescue teams from several neighboring counties searching the thick, wooded, marshy area around the home for 7-month-old Shannon Lea Dedrick. Her parents reported her missing at 11:23 a.m. Saturday, prompting an intensive search of the area. She is still missing.

Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said investigators have been talking to a “person of suspicion” they believe could resolve the case. Haddock was tightlipped about the details surrounding Shannon Lea’s disappearance, citing an ongoing investigation. He declined to release the parents’ names. He also declined to release the person of suspicion’s name or relation, if any, to the parents.

Wilt and Blaylock said they saw what they believed to be a grey van near the residence the night Shannon Lea went missing. They said the van has been at the residence numerous times over the past two months.

Haddock said several search and rescue teams from the region began an arm-to-arm search of the immediate area around the residence Saturday morning.

The search extended Sunday and continued into the evening on Monday. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is also assisting with the investigation.

“We’re hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst,” Haddock said.

Haddock said Shannon Lea’s parents called the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to report her missing Saturday, telling investigators she was in the same bedroom as the parents and could have gone missing as early as 3 a.m. or as late as 11 a.m. He did not indicate whether the parents were believed to be implicated in her disappearance, but did say they have no past criminal history. He described the parents’ emotional state as “upset.”

Search and rescue personnel created a staging area at the old Washington County landfill not far from Brown Street and used all terrain vehicles and horses to navigate the thick woods. Scent-specific dogs are also being used. Haddock said the dogs picked up a faint scent briefly, but nothing that led investigators to a specific site.

“The dogs are more effective in tracking a person that walked away from a place, but this baby couldn’t walk,” Haddock said. “The child cannot walk or crawl. It did not leave the residence by itself.”

Haddock said the parents have chosen not to make a public statement.

“We are making that appeal and acting for the family,” Haddock said.

Wilt and Blaylock said they were surprised to learn about Shannon Lea’s disappearance.

“This is crazy,” Wilt said. “This is something you always hear about happening somewhere else. You never think about it happening in your backyard.”