Baby India case: Mother arrested nearly 4 years after newborn found in plastic bag | REWATCH
good afternoon everybody my name is Ron Freeman I'm the sheriff of Forsyth County um obviously we're here today because we've had a major breakthrough and what we've all known as a baby India case standing with me today are representatives from the Georgia bureau investigations uh chairman of Forsyth County Board of Commissioners the FBI as well as members of our Major Crimes unit and other units within the Sheriff's Office you know this has been a almost to the date four-year investigation four years ago we stood In This Very Room behind this very podium and we asked for your help because we wanted to know who could do something so incredulous to leave a baby tied up in a bag in the woods to die and so thank you to the media because every one of you ran the story and he ran it a lot but unfortunately those leads came in slow and they didn't lead to a lot of stuff that you guys tried so thank you you remember she was found on June 6 2019 in southeast Forsyth County just before a significant thunderstorm hit this County back then I call it divine intervention and I truly believe that still today if you look at everything that had to happen for this little girl to survive for alert people to hear a sound in the woods that they thought was a wild animal but two teenage girls who couldn't let it go because they thought it sounded like a baby crying to a dad they convinced to go out in the middle of the night to check on a weird sound in the middle of the Woods to discover that to the first respondent Deputy Terry Roper being a dad like he's supposed to be showing an infant what they should have been shown which is compassion and care and somebody's going to take care of them when the person who was supposed to be doing that wouldn't do it this investigation has literally taken thousands of hours and we never stop for those four years four years ago I stood in this room and I told you we will bring this person to Justice whoever was responsible for this we would find them and we would bring them to justice I'll be honest with you little did I know it was going to take four years that massive investigation in those thousands of hours we left no stone unturned that this investigation is spanned from the Northeast to the Midwest and we utilized every significant technological and investigative technique that we could find now approximately 10 months ago with Advanced DNA investigative practices and familial DNA the Sheriff's Office was able to identify the father of baby India that began even more concerted investigation with a focus to determine the manner cause and who was responsible for leaving baby India to die in an isolated area of woods we engaged and I want to think personally say thank you to FBI Atlanta to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations because we asked for their help the FBI provided countless help to us in surveillance over the last 10 months the gbi crime lab provided valuable information for us and they helped us with interviews yesterday so I want to thank our partners because we don't work cases like this alone within the past week the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes unit we're able to utilize again DNA we're able to identify the birth parent of baby India instrumental in the speed of that identification was off from labs it's a DNA laboratory and we have the president Dr David middleman with us here today I want to brag on them for a second my major crimes detectives tell me when we identified the birth parent of baby India he himself was on the phone with our detectives after midnight that very night so thank you for your help now to get to the real part of why we're here yesterday for side County Sheriff's Office executed multiple arrests and search warrants across Forsyth County nearly 40 deputies participated in the operation and we conducted dozens of interviews and those efforts are continuing today our goal was simple identify who was responsible for trying to kill baby India no less no more this investigation is not over there's still work to be done and again as I said it continues I want to thank our district attorney Penny Penn she in her office we're lockstep with us and with us yesterday as we worked on this investigation and it's now their job to take this forward to a grand jury I didn't have to motivate our team to do this you know every detective assigned to this case primarily happened to be a parent themselves you don't have to work really hard when somebody tries to hurt a baby it's it's easy to be motivated why I was certainly a team effort I'm going to recognize three individuals to take the Corporal Tim Connor is a case agent Sergeant Tyler Sexton and detective Lieutenant Bill Franco they ran one of the most complex and best investigations I've seen in my three decades in this work yesterday the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office arrested Karima jawani 40 years old a female of [ __ ] Forsyth County where she lives in southeast Forsyth County DNA evidence confirms that Karima is the biological birth parent of baby India she cooperated with detectives during the investigation she has been charged with criminal attempt to commit murder cruelty to children in the first degree aggravated assault Reckless abandonment and other charges how apparent and I happen to be one too can do such a callous thing is both incomprehensible to all of us and it's infuriating I'm dumbfounded by any reasoning that could be there and how someone can have the ability to leave their own child to die while we're not going to discuss motives or details of her interview as this case is pending prosecution and that is the most important thing to me little can explain how this happened and no motive can justify that decision you know Georgia has a Safe Harbor Law many of you seen that first 30 days you can leave a child at a hospital the police station a fire station the Sheriff's Office and you can't get charged in this case jawani made no effort to lead this child not only under Safe Harbor law but at any place this child can be found this child was tied up in a plastic bag and thrown into the woods like a bag of trash I can't understand that I truly wish I could I struggle but I don't know how you can understand that it literally is one of the saddest things I have ever seen yesterday deputy sheriff Terry Roper who discovered and rescued baby India was one of the arresting deputies of Karima Juani seemed only fitting the deputy who first showed as I said earlier baby India what a parent and a human being should act like how someone is supposed to protect and comfort an infant got the privilege of arresting that person now I took a little executive privilege because the handcuffs she wore to jail were mine and the case detective Tim Connors the one that put them on there I told you four years ago we would find them and my cuss would be on them and they were evidence indicates that this birth likely took place inside of a motor vehicle detectives have developed information on this and are currently working on locating that vehicle and have leads on it additional evidence reveals that Karima jawani drove along for a significant period of time after the birth of baby India with the child in the car and she made no effort to leave this child at any safe place where there was any remote possibility of her being located until she decided to tie the baby in a plastic bag and throw it into the woods to die this is an incredible case with the strangers of circumstances from the beginning to the end evidence also reveals a history of hidden and concealed pregnancies and surprise births in Mr juani's history get your limits indicates that she had known of this particular pregnancy for a period of time fairly considerable period of time and went to extremes to conceal this pregnancy interviews of family friends and medical professionals corroborate the history of these concealed pregnancies and for lack of better description surprise bursts a lot of Texas all of us were surprised by the facts of this case the evidence supports it sampling horribly it is what it is trace evidence collected the scene where baby India was abandoned I also Sports the likelihood that kareema juwani was alone at the time of disposing of baby India You know despite this inconceivable criminal act I think there's a good story to tell here baby end is now prospering she's happy and healthy when those who are supposed to do their best did their worst to her Forsyth County stepped up in a big way we had literally hundreds if not thousands we wish they were leads but citizens calling in asking how they could help when she was first found I'll Foster her I'll adopt her my wife and I said would Foster her I share some police chief calling me and tell me they would adopt her one to make sure she was taken care of you know when a biological parent wouldn't do what they're supposed to do Forsyth County surrounded this little girl would love care and prayers and lifted her up the way it's supposed to be telling my team I said man isn't it going to be cool to watch this little girl grow up and see her do some great things in spite of these beginnings that's the jest ladies and gentlemen a biological parent a trouble with the word mother who inexplicably intentionally left her newborn infant to die it's a cash for prosecution there's no justification but I'm really really proud of the work that these men and women in this room and behind me put in because this case needed to be solved and this community needed to know what happened to Baby India with that we'll be glad to take some questions please understand to kind of hit points here we're not going to discuss current status of baby India she is happy and healthy in a safe place but confidentiality is Paramount in this case where it comes to her so we're not going to discuss her and there is some evidence because of the prosecution we're going to be hesitant to speak to at this point in the case but other than that uh detectives and and people behind me and myself will be glad to take some questions you said that there's evidence that reveals she has a history of surprised births are there any indications that she has done this very same thing to other newborns we inquired about that and looked into that and thus far uh while the statement I made was accurate we have not found additional acts like this we've not discovered any other criminal acts we're probably the best answer for that sure Fox spot Atlanta I can see on your faces and all those guys here today uh having resolved this case you're finally have an arrest I've been doing this for 33 years and I truly can't think of one that I wanted more you know people get it look if you're a parent you get you really get it if you're a parent right this innocent baby girl who needed everything right they need everything from the time they're born got put in a bag and left as a bag of trash to die and so yeah I'll be very blunt every one of us behind here have said we wanted this one we wanted this resolved and we wanted to find the person responsible but we did that also as professional law enforcement officers because you didn't know the facts till you knew the facts unfortunately facts in this case reveal no mitigation right no explanation just a really really heinous act so I think we're all pleased but I thought I would be madder than I am but I'm actually probably a little sadder because I can't understand it I think we're better than that in humanity you said that you tracked down the father through DNA two months ago can you kind of talk about what happened in the last 10 months that took so I don't want to say it took so long but the amount of time it took to track the mom can you speak to that time frame without going into our investigative techniques yeah not everybody has a DNA profile that's in some database somewhere some accessible somehow and once we identified the father as you can imagine we had an investigation that was this big once we once we identify the father that gave us a really focal point but not knowing the facts of the case not knowing who was responsible for this criminal act against baby India that began an intensive surveillance investigation a lot of background investigation a lot of additional information needed to be solved and it wasn't until last week that the break of identifying the birth parent happened so we were working at hot and heavy for the last 10 months but we needed one additional piece of information to make us feel that we had enough to go forward with criminal prosecution and that was the DNA identification of the birth parent birth parent issue from Forsyth County this is the birth parent is Crema jawani who's under arrest and sitting in my jail is she from this area she she lives in southeast Forsyth County for the last couple of years Frankie you wanna let Lieutenant Franco so I mean Lieutenant Franco Major Crimes unit uh I mean basically we're looking for the links and we're putting the pieces together and and that took took us to several different places throughout the country and then eventually brought us back here to Forsyth County I think any elaboration of why or how like was the suspect living there did they move back anything like that no they were here thank you Sheriff Michelle did the are you allowed to say did the biological father know that there was even a baby there is no evidence at this point that the father was aware of either the pregnancy or the abandonment of baby India uh and we have looked thus far exclusively and in depth at that and that's why I mentioned earlier that there is a history of unknown or concealed pregnancies uh maybe both and that's still under investigation at this point not the father per se but the unknown and concealed practices as we validate additional information but we've corroborated that in multiple interviews yesterday in multiple uh statements made yesterday and so at this point we have zero reason to believe the father was aware of the pregnancy or of the birth and abandonment of baby India more questions alive and I know you probably mentioned this a little but did this young lady give any indication of why that goes the motive um and I will say that she cooperated and there was but at this point due to the pending prosecution we're not going to talk about motivations and I hope you respect that but but we do have some information but I will say this again for God's sake tell me any explanation and I know that you're not asking any explanation on the face of this Earth that can justify doing that to a child because it don't exist didger if you had Sheriff can you just uh if the suspect happened there are additional children we have contacted our partners at the Department of Family and Children's Services and ask them to evaluate and put a safety plan in place Mr Juani is being held without bond at the Forsyth County jail and so that becomes a defax issue for them to evaluate the home or the current standing of those other children but there there were additional children did you can you provide the number of children and ages or age range I'm going to be very cautious of identifying children who are innocent and had nothing to do in this heinous criminal act but they range from school age to near adult and I'll just leave it that are too easy I just said um there is no explanation for this kind of act but could you just speak uh again to someone who may be out there who maybe don't know like look there are other options oh one thank you look there there's a thousand different ways we talked about the Safe Harbor Law and being able to drop off at those locations we talked about and I'm sure and I and I'm asking for you our friends in the media please push that out there right because we might stop this from happening somewhere else but for God's sake don't don't leave a baby in such a position and I want to make a very clear difference there's one thing of abandoning a child you've covered many cases we've seen cases been involved in cases where babies been abandoned left on a doorstep left at right a business left in a parking lot where it was clear that even though it might not have complied with the Safe Harbor Law someone had something in their mind that this child would likely be found that is not this case this child was wrapped up to suffocate in a plastic bag thrown 20 yards in the woods in an isolated area with one House nearby it that family happened to arrive home when they weren't supposed to and happened to go back outside because it's going to rain to empty their car when they had earlier decided they were going to do it the next morning that's the vine intervention this Baby's supposed to be here so I want to make very clear the difference in someone who's struggling someone who doesn't know what to do someone who's you know in an emotional distress and abandons a child because they don't know what else to do but took some effort at least to find some safety and care for that child versus somebody tried to kill a child they're not the same thing Tom okay I'm sorry anything else ladies and gentlemen thank you very much thank you for your help again four years ago and let's hope we never see each other for something like this again all right thank you South Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman and the case surrounding baby India they did make an announcement that they've made an arrest nearly four years later the baby's mother Karima juwani was arrested yesterday she's now facing multiple charges including criminal attempt to commit murder first degree Cruelty to Children aggravated assault Reckless abandonment all of this stems back in 2019 a family says that they heard a baby crying in the woods near their home they picked up the phone and called police police got out to the woods and they found a newborn baby wrapped in a plastic bag left for dead the police were able to get that baby to safety Sheriff Freeman telling us today that baby India is happy and healthy he's not giving any updates about the baby's location for security purposes but we do want to touch on the investigation here he said about 10 months ago Sheriff's Office identified the father of baby India with help from the FBI and gbi within the past week Forsyth County Major Crimes unit well they identified the mother and yesterday he says that about 40 officers went throughout Forsyth County they made multiple arrests in multiple interviews and that's what brought them to the arrest of juwani who is now in Forsyth County custody uh so we're going to be digging into this case on later editions of 11 alive news at 5 6 and 11 pm we do know that jawani is expected to virtually appear in court tomorrow at 10 A.M we will be there and we will bring that to you as well for more information and to listen to the chilling phone call from when that family found baby India you can actually listen to that right now at 11alive.com we'll see you later
2023-05-22 12:26
