BREAKING NEWS: Body of 3-year-old found; adoptive mom charged
This is why we want to SAVE JACKSON BORTZ!!!
By KRISTINA TORRES , CRAIG SCHNEIDER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By KRISTINA TORRES , CRAIG SCHNEIDER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/28/06
ALMA — The birth mother of a 3-year-old child apparently killed by an adoptive parent said Friday that she had tried and failed to convince state welfare officials to place her son with a relative.
Shamil Rawls reacted with shock Friday after police announced that searchers had found her son's body concealed by straw off a rural county road near this south Georgia community.
Mary Jane King has been charged with murder. Authorities will not go into possible motives for the killing. Ahmad King had been reported missing. His body was recovered Thursday along a country road.
A tearful Rawls, 27, said she had known that she had to give up Ahmad King, but she wanted him to live with her grandmother.
Rawls expressed no misgivings about Mary Jane King, 34, the adoptive mother who confessed Thursday to killing Ahmad.
"I always thought she was a good woman," said Rawls sobbing outside the Bacon County courthouse where authorities were announcing they found her son's body.
"He was a good boy," Rawls said. "He should never have been in her custody. My grandmother was supposed to have him."
Rawls didn't make clear why she lost custody of her son. A friend with her, Pam Sailem, said Rawls had raised him for the first two years of his life before the state Division of Family and Children Services removed him from her care.
Rawls' grandmother began working with DFCS to take custody of the boy, obtaining clothing and furnishings for him, Rawls said.
Rawls said she complained to DFCS when the agency removed Ahmad and placed him with King and her husband, Timothy.
The Kings adopted the child in August, according to DFCS.
Rawls blamed DFCS for her child's death: "It's their fault."
DFCS officials said Friday night that they were unaware of Rawls' comments, but said the Kings had a good record as foster parents.
Mary Jane King confessed to killing Ahmad King on Thursday. She had told authorities on Tuesday that he had been kidnapped from the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in nearby Jesup.
She said the child disappeared after she left him in her car while she was getting a shopping cart.
King made tearful public pleas for the boy's safe return. "Just bring him back or just leave him with somebody," she told Savannah television station WTOC. "Leave him at a store, something. We just want him back."
Authorities said King killed the boy, drove out of town and dumped his body 20 yards off the road.
Rick Currie, district attorney for Waycross District, which includes Bacon County, said King was in police custody.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said King was cooperating with police and has been charged with murder.
Timothy King is not charged and is not considered a suspect, authorities said.
Authorities will not comment on Mary Jane King's motive.
"She has made a confession," said Jeff Evans, special agent in charge of the GBI's regional office in Douglas. "I'm confident that what she's told us is true."
Evans said investigators found other evidence suggesting Ahmad had been murdered after searching King's home early Thursday morning. He declined to elaborate.
DFCS Director Mary Dean Harvey said the Kings have been foster parents for more than three years and have a clean record. They had been foster parents to three children.
"The King family was a model family," Harvey said. "Loving, supportive, kind, nurturing, dependable ... provided real stability for children."
Jason King, 30, who is no relation, said he lived near the Kings about four years ago, and found them to be good people.
"We would drop off vegetables to them, and they would do things for us," he said. "I've never seen them get angry."
He said Mary Jane King baby-sat for others in the neighborhood. She was "a quiet, good person," he said.
Even with King's help, search crews struggled to find the child's body, authorities said.
"This area's very rural, there's a lot of timber and flat land and water," Evans said. "Some people would think many of the areas look identical or look similar."
"We're glad he's not out there anymore," said Evans.
The boy's death has shocked this community.
"We used to say 'Maybe Atlanta, maybe Savannah — but never some place like Alma,' " said resident Carolyn Bembry.
The Associated Press
contributed to this article.
ALMA — The birth mother of a 3-year-old child apparently killed by an adoptive parent said Friday that she had tried and failed to convince state welfare officials to place her son with a relative.
Shamil Rawls reacted with shock Friday after police announced that searchers had found her son's body concealed by straw off a rural county road near this south Georgia community.
Mary Jane King has been charged with murder. Authorities will not go into possible motives for the killing. Ahmad King had been reported missing. His body was recovered Thursday along a country road.
A tearful Rawls, 27, said she had known that she had to give up Ahmad King, but she wanted him to live with her grandmother.
Rawls expressed no misgivings about Mary Jane King, 34, the adoptive mother who confessed Thursday to killing Ahmad.
"I always thought she was a good woman," said Rawls sobbing outside the Bacon County courthouse where authorities were announcing they found her son's body.
"He was a good boy," Rawls said. "He should never have been in her custody. My grandmother was supposed to have him."
Rawls didn't make clear why she lost custody of her son. A friend with her, Pam Sailem, said Rawls had raised him for the first two years of his life before the state Division of Family and Children Services removed him from her care.
Rawls' grandmother began working with DFCS to take custody of the boy, obtaining clothing and furnishings for him, Rawls said.
Rawls said she complained to DFCS when the agency removed Ahmad and placed him with King and her husband, Timothy.
The Kings adopted the child in August, according to DFCS.
Rawls blamed DFCS for her child's death: "It's their fault."
DFCS officials said Friday night that they were unaware of Rawls' comments, but said the Kings had a good record as foster parents.
Mary Jane King confessed to killing Ahmad King on Thursday. She had told authorities on Tuesday that he had been kidnapped from the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in nearby Jesup.
She said the child disappeared after she left him in her car while she was getting a shopping cart.
King made tearful public pleas for the boy's safe return. "Just bring him back or just leave him with somebody," she told Savannah television station WTOC. "Leave him at a store, something. We just want him back."
Authorities said King killed the boy, drove out of town and dumped his body 20 yards off the road.
Rick Currie, district attorney for Waycross District, which includes Bacon County, said King was in police custody.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said King was cooperating with police and has been charged with murder.
Timothy King is not charged and is not considered a suspect, authorities said.
Authorities will not comment on Mary Jane King's motive.
"She has made a confession," said Jeff Evans, special agent in charge of the GBI's regional office in Douglas. "I'm confident that what she's told us is true."
Evans said investigators found other evidence suggesting Ahmad had been murdered after searching King's home early Thursday morning. He declined to elaborate.
DFCS Director Mary Dean Harvey said the Kings have been foster parents for more than three years and have a clean record. They had been foster parents to three children.
"The King family was a model family," Harvey said. "Loving, supportive, kind, nurturing, dependable ... provided real stability for children."
Jason King, 30, who is no relation, said he lived near the Kings about four years ago, and found them to be good people.
"We would drop off vegetables to them, and they would do things for us," he said. "I've never seen them get angry."
He said Mary Jane King baby-sat for others in the neighborhood. She was "a quiet, good person," he said.
Even with King's help, search crews struggled to find the child's body, authorities said.
"This area's very rural, there's a lot of timber and flat land and water," Evans said. "Some people would think many of the areas look identical or look similar."
"We're glad he's not out there anymore," said Evans.
The boy's death has shocked this community.
"We used to say 'Maybe Atlanta, maybe Savannah — but never some place like Alma,' " said resident Carolyn Bembry.
The Associated Press
contributed to this article.
posted by CPS Detective Kemi Lane @ 8:43 AM
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