Founder and Managing Partner
Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives searched an Antelope Valley landfill Tuesday in hopes of finding the remains of a missing 3-week-old baby.
Deputies initially responded to the 2300 block of Carolyn Drive in Palmdale on a report of a missing child. But the case quickly turned into a death investigation, and a search began for the “remains of the infant,” sheriff’s officials said.
It was not immediately clear what led authorities to the landfill in northern Los Angeles County.
“During the early stages, the investigation transitioned from a missing child search to a death investigation,” the sheriff’s department said.
Baki Dewees has been missing since May 3 when he was last seen in Palmdale, according to a flyer distributed by family members. The flyer included a photo of Baki in a yellow sweater and green pants.
The baby’s mother and father are in custody in Utah on unrelated charges, the sheriff’s department said.
The baby’s grandfather said the family last saw Baki on May 3 with his father, 24-year-old Yusuf Dewees. The grandfather said Baki’s mother, his step-daughter, recently moved to Palmdale from Ohio with her husband, Yusuf Dewees, and the couple’s three other children, ages 1, 3 and 5.
“When the baby came up missing, that’s when you know something is wrong,” the baby’s grandfather, Brad Parke, said. “We just want to know where the baby’s at. Hoping that the baby’s alive, praying that the baby’s actually alive.”
The baby’s grandmother said Baki was just a few days old when her daughter, Baki’s mother, was arrested on suspicion of child abuse in Utah. Jail records show that the 25-year-old mother was arrested on April 16 on charges of intentional child abuse, reckless child abuse and aggravated child abuse.
Yusuf Dewees and the children traveled to Palmdale on April 19, but the grandmother said he returned to the shelter in early May. She told NBCLA she called a social worker to check on Baki at the shelter and learned he wasn’t there, leading to the missing child report.
Yusuf Dewees was arrested May 7 on suspicion of obstruction of justice and making a false statement to be used at a preliminary hearing.
Both parents are being held in Ogden, Utah, north of Salt Lake City,