KNIGHTS LANDING — A Woodland family’s elation over the recent birth of a baby boy turned to anguish Wednesday at news that the 3-week-old infant was found dead along a rural Yolo County slough.
Justice Rees was reported missing on Monday along with his mother, Samantha Green, who according to Yolo County sheriff’s officials turned up the following evening, “crying and hysterical” along the east levee of Ridge Cut Slough in Knights Landing.
Although Green — who turned 23 on Wednesday — told responding deputies that the baby had been with her somewhere near the slough, in a location she was unable to specify due to her distraught state, there was no sign of her newborn son.
That changed at about 9:50 a.m. Wednesday as law-enforcement officers who had conducted a round-the-clock search since the night before discovered a baby’s body amid the tangled thickets that line the banks of the slough, which runs along the south edge of the rural community.
How the mother and infant came to be in Knights Landing, however, remains unclear.
“It’s too early to tell from the investigation if there was any foul play,” said sheriff’s Capt. Larry Cecchettini, who paused a couple of times during a press conference as he struggled to hold back tears.
The Yolo County coroner’s office has scheduled an autopsy today to determine the infant’s cause and manner of death. Though the sheriff’s investigation will include the possibility of homicide in order to preserve any physical evidence that’s collected, “at this point, we don’t have any information to believe that it would be a homicide,” Cecchettini added.
He also noted that while the baby’s family was notified that an infant’s body was found, the child had not yet been positively identified.
As Cecchettini delivered the grim news to reporters, nearby, relatives of Green and Justice who minutes earlier had been informed by a police chaplain of the baby’s discovery embraced one another tearfully, then joined hands in a prayer circle.
“It’s not the outcome we wanted. We wanted our daughter and our grandson,” said Randy Green, Samantha’s father, one of a group of family members who held vigil near the law-enforcement command post as the search was underway. “He never even had a chance.”
While he was still getting to know Justice, Randy Green described him as “a sweet baby. He never cried.” He said he last spoke to his daughter on Saturday, two days before the mother and son went missing.
“She was fine. She was going to come over so we could see the baby,” Green said. “It’s really a sad situation, but I guess at least we got some closure. We can try to move on from this. We know now what happened — there’s no wondering if he’s still alive or if he’s dead.”
Samantha Green remained hospitalized Wednesday at Woodland Memorial Hospital, where Cecchettini said she was informed of the discovery of her son’s body.
She had been transported there Tuesday night after a Knights Landing resident encountered her while walking in the slough area. In addition to her traumatized state, she had sustained injuries consistent with being amid the thorny brush, sheriff’s Capt. Dale Johnson said.
Authorities also reported finding a vehicle belonging to the family of Frank Rees — Samantha Green’s fiancé and the father of the baby — parked near the slough on the west edge of town, amid a development of newer homes. An infant safety seat was still strapped inside.
Rees could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But following the disappearance of Green and Justice, he took to Facebook in a desperate search for information regarding their whereabouts.
“We love you Samantha. Just come home babe,” Rees posted Tuesday morning. “I miss you and our son sooooo much. Whatever it is you want different we can fix. I love you momma.”
Then, later that day, he posted an offer of $5,000 and “whatever else you want that I own” for the return of his baby boy.
“He is our son and I will trade my life for his if need be. … So if someone has him just leave him some(where) safe and warm where we can get him,” Rees pleaded in writing.
Green’s reappearance prompted sheriff’s officials to launch an immediate search for the baby, aided by law-enforcement agencies and fire departments from as far away as Napa, Marin and Contra Costa counties who scoured the slough area on foot, by boat and with search dogs and all-terrain vehicles.
The effort continued throughout the night, amid temperatures that dipped into the low 40s, ramping up Tuesday morning as daylight broke.
It was a Yolo marine patrol search-and-rescue unit that ultimately found Justice on the slough’s south bank, near County Road 102, amid such tangled brush that searchers had to cut a path through it to retrieve the infant’s body.
Nearly 100 personnel took part in the search, most if not all of them affected by its tragic end, Cecchettini said.
“All of us have had kids,” Cecchettini said. “Everybody’s emotional. It’s a hard deal, but they stayed with it, and we’re very proud of all of them. When you have something like this, especially when it involves a child, you just don’t give up. You just keep going and see it through.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
