Missing 6-month-old found in car trunk in Gardner

May 23, 2008 08:11 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Maria Cramer, Shelley Murphy, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

GARDNER -- A 6-month-old boy who had been snatched from his crib in the middle of the night in Gardner was found nine hours later hidden in the trunk of a broken-down car.

Paul Baez Jr.

Police found the boy at 10:30 a.m. in the trunk of a black Honda Civic parked at the home of Jason Bisceglia, a 19-year-old man who attended a party at the apartment of the child's mother, Asia C. Sterrett. Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said at a press conference this afternoon that Bisceglia took the boy and led police to the child after he was taken into custody.

The child, Paul Baez Jr., spent about two hours inside the trunk wearing only a diaper, officials said. He was rushed to Heywood Hospital and is in good condition.

"This was not a joke," Early said. "We averted a real tragedy."

Authorities described Bisceglia as a friend of the 20-year-old Sterrett, but would not say why he allegedly took the child.

"Through his statement, we know he was the one that had taken the child," Early said. "That's all I can say at this point."

"I want to see him do time in jail,'' Sterrett said in an interview, her voice quivering as she spoke about her son's ordeal. "He made my baby suffer for two hours. No food, his diaper wasn't changed...he was in a hot trunk,''

Bisceglia appeared barefoot in a white jumpsuit when he was arraigned this afternoon in Gardner District Court on charges of kidnapping and child endangerment. Bisceglia's father and grandmother came to court but declined to speak to reporters. His grandmother closed her eyes and covered her mouth with her hand when Assistant District Attorney Thomas Landry described the charges.

Landry said that Bisceglia got in an argument with the boy's mother at the party before he took her son.

Defense attorney Mark Goldstein said his client did not remember taking the child. "This is very unusual," Goldstein said. "His behavior is out of character."

Bisceglia was ordered held on $50,000 cash bail.

At the press conference, police offered only a few details about the gathering at Sterrett's apartment on Hemlock Drive.

"There were a number of individuals partying at the apartment," said Chief Neil Erickson of the Gardner Police Department. "I believe there was some alcohol, and some marijuana has been mentioned also."

After putting the baby to bed, Sterrett noticed her son missing at 1:40 a.m. and searched the apartment. She called 911 at 2:14 a.m. and reported her son missing, police said.

The call touched off a massive search that included state and local police and bloodhounds. When officers did not find the child in the immediate area, they began interviewing witnesses, including Bisceglia, according to Early.

Bisceglia told police he felt ill and said he was going to the hospital, Early said. When Bisceglia did not show up at the hospital, police went to his Linwood Street home, which is roughly two miles away from Sterrett's apartment.

"Upon seeing uniformed Gardner police arriving [at his home], he panicked and moved the baby from the basement of his house to a trunk of a disabled motor vehicle parked in front of the property," Early said.

Bisceglia then ran into the woods, where he was apprehended. At the Gardner Police Department, Bisceglia told police he took the 6-month-old child and hid him in the trunk, Early said.

The Department of Social Services took custody of the baby and his 16-month-old sister today. Sterrett's third child, a two-year-old boy, was placed with relatives, according to a spokeswoman for the agency.

DSS had previously investigated Sterrett, before the birth of her youngest son, for a complaint of neglect involving one of her other children. But that case was closed last year, according to Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for DSS. She said she had no further information about the details of that case.