Search Underway for Missing Florida Infant

Authorities and volunteers were searching the woods in a remote area near Chipley, Florida looking for a 7-month-old girl missing from her parents' home since early Saturday morning. The missing child has been identified as Shannon Lea Dedrick, but the identity of her parents have not been revealed by law enforcement officials.

UPDATE: Shannon Dedrick has been found alive in a box hidden under her baby sitter's bed and authorities say they'll charge the sitter, her husband and the infant's mother. The baby sitter, Susan Elizabeth Baker, 50, her husband James, and Shannon's mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer, have been detained and all will likely be charged in the infant's disappearance, police said.

"We have searched every dumpster in the city limits of Chipley, we have turned over every garbage can," Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock told reporters. "The child cannot walk or crawl, it did not leave the residence by itself."

The search is now focused on the wooded area around the neighborhood described by one reporter as a "makeshift community of dirt roads, tin-roof shacks and old mobile homes" located about 45 miles north of Panama City, Florida.

Some media outlet reported that a babysitter, who wrote an email to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist saying that the baby was in danger, may be the person of interest investigators are talking with in the case.

See Also:
Missing Fla. Baby Found Alive Under Baby Sitter's Bed
Police Search for Missing Florida Baby

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