Unidentified in TX - Baby Grace

Baby Grace

Above: Forensic sketches from the Galveston County Sherriff's Department

Various important facts:

-- The body was found on a marshy sandbar in an area known as Greens Cut near Greens Lake, where there is a break in the barrier separating West Galveston Bay from the Intracoastal Waterway, he said. It is estimated that the cut is about five miles southwest of the Galveston Causeway. Her body was stuffed in a storage box and hidden in the bay for as long as several weeks, according to autopsy results.

-- The autopsy showed that the child "had skull fractures...and there was no other trauma found," Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Pustilnik said. He said he could not tell yet exactly what caused her death.

-- Baby Grace is white, was 2- to 5 years old, weighed between 25 and 30 pounds and stood about 32 to 35 inches tall.

-- The child was wrapped in plastic bags and was in a blue utility box. The container was a blue Sterilite-brand model 1842 92-quart tote locker, with a black handle

-- The girl had wavy, blond to light-brown hair that fell to about the middle of her back.

-- She wore a pink or red cropped shirt and a matching skirt. The top was a pullover with three-quarter-length sleeves and the bottom was a broom skirt. Her top and skirt are believed to have been sold by Target. Cherokee brand.


For larger photos, please click above.

-- On her feet were white sneakers with pink flower decorations that lit up and flashed. Her shoes, made by Athletic Works, were the company's "Tiara" model, and had been available at Wal-Mart stores.

-- The girl wore panties with a Disney label inside and a figure that appeared to be a princess on the outside.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Galveston County sheriff's investigators at 409-766-2222 or 866- 248-8477 or any Crime Stoppers organization.

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Nov. 2, 2007, 5:46PM
New sketches put a face on Baby Grace

By ANNE MARIE KILDAY and KEVIN MORAN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Authorities ask anyone with information about this case to contact Galveston County sheriff's investigators at 409-766-2222 or 866-248-8477 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

For now, they are calling her Baby Grace.

She had wavy, blond hair that fell to the middle of her back.

She wore a pink or red cropped shirt and a matching skirt. On her feet were white sneakers with pink flower decorations that lighted up and flashed when she walked.

Sometime before someone stuffed the unidentified 2- to 5-year-old child into a storage box several weeks ago, her skull was fractured, authorities said.

On Thursday, investigators issued an international plea for help to identify the little girl whose body washed up inside a blue utility box on a Galveston Bay island late Monday.

"It's despicable that someone would dispose of this little girl's body in the way that they did," said Galveston County sheriff's Sgt. Mike Barry during an emotional news conference Thursday. "We will follow any lead to try to find the identity of Baby Grace."

Baby Grace is the name investigators adopted for the little girl shortly after a fisherman found her body late Monday along the Intracoastal Waterway.

"It (Grace) means 'given,' or 'on behalf of,' " said sheriff's Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo. "Now, we all feel that we are going to give her all our focus."

Galveston County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Pustilnik said the girl had been dead for at least two weeks, possibly more. Although a cause of death has yet to be determined, authorities are treating the case as a homicide.

An autopsy showed that the child "had skull fractures ... and there was no other trauma found," Pustilnik said. Authorities are trying to determine if the girl had been sexually assaulted, he said.

The FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Houston Police Department are assisting in the investigation as authorities work to get a sketch of the child released to the public.

HPD sketch artist Lois Gibson met with the medical examiner early Thursday.

"I am really glad to get a chance to cry out for the baby," Gibson said. "I want to cry out for her; she can't talk. And I want to be her voice."

Gibson has worked for HPD on dozens of homicides and missing persons cases, including cases involving about six missing children.

Baby Grace is white and weighed between 25 and 30 pounds and stood about 32 to 35 inches tall.

The child was found wrapped in plastic bags and stuffed in a blue 92-quart tote locker with a black handle — Sterilite-brand model 1842, authorities said.

The girl's top was a pullover with three-quarter-length sleeves, and the bottom was a broom skirt. She wore panties with a Disney label inside and a figure that appeared to be a princess on the outside, investigators said.

Her shoes, made by Athletic Works, were the company's "Tiara" model and had been available at Wal-Mart stores. Her top and skirt are believed to have been sold by Target.

Investigators said they believe they will learn the girl's name and be able to find out how she died as word about the case spreads and the right person hears her description.

"There's a grandparent who hasn't seen their grandchild in the last couple of weeks," Pustilnik said. "There's an aunt or an uncle someplace, maybe locally, maybe somewhere in the state, maybe somewhere around the nation who has not seen the tragic end to this little girl, what she came to."

The body was found on a marshy sandbar in an area known as Greens Cut near Greens Lake, where there is a break in the barrier separating West Galveston Bay from the Intracoastal Waterway, he said.

Tuttoilmondo estimated that the cut is about five miles southwest of the Galveston Causeway.

Investigators in the sheriff's office are studying Galveston Bay's tides to determine the possible drift of the plastic storage container from another location, Tuttoilmondo said.

"I don't think there is any indication that where she was found is where she was killed," he said. "That's a foregone conclusion."

Earlier this week, Galveston County officials put out an alert to participants in a fishing tournament held there last weekend in an effort to find out whether any participants had seen anything unusual, Tuttoilmondo said. The tournament was a benefit to aid children, he said.

kevin.moran@chron.com
anne.kilday@chron.com

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'Baby Grace' Sketch Released
Police Seeking Public Help in ID-ing Girl Found Dead by Fisherman Monday Night

By DAVID SCHOETZ
Nov. 2, 2007

Authorities in Texas released a composite sketch of an unidentified child whose dead body was stuffed into a locked plastic container and found by a fisherman Monday night.

"Baby Grace," as authorities have named the girl, suffered fractures to her skull that initially may have caused her death. Police are treating the case like a homicide while pathologists at the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office continue to analyze the body.

Results from various chemical tests may be required before an exact cause of death is determined. Because of the body's level of decomposition, investigators cannot specifically place the girl's date of death.

Authorities are trying to elevate the profile of the case -- an effort that has already resulted in hundreds of calls to the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. "We're getting loads of phone calls," Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo, a spokesman for the county sheriff's office, told ABC News. "We're keeping our fingers crossed one of those calls is going to be the right one."

Sheriff's officers describe Baby Grace as a white girl with blond hair between the ages of 2 and 3. She stood a little less than 3 feet tall and weighed about 30 pounds.

"For us, she is a whole lot more than an unidentified girl," Tuttoilmondo said. "She's somebody's child. Somebody's missing her."

The name Grace, he said, was given to the girl to provide the public "a human factor for folks to identify with."

Authorities hope that someone will come forward with information that will allow them to stop using "Grace" in place of the girl's real name. They also want answers about how the girl died and what type of criminal charges should be pursued.

"This is a young person who has not received an appropriate burial," said Galveston Sheriff Gean Leonard. "We recognize that this death could be the result of an accident. One thing is that this is a young person who has not received an appropriate burial. Another thing is for someone to come forward and clear up the entire matter."

The girl's body was found inside a locked plastic Sterilite container, authorities said. She was wearing a pink pullover top, a "broom-style" skirt in a matching color made of seersucker material, and a pair of Velcro sneakers.

Authorities released an image of the Tiara model shoes that are "nearly identical" to the ones the girl was wearing. They are a children's size 8½, white with purple trim and lights in the heels.

As investigators comb through national missing persons databases for possible matches, authorities are eager to elevate the profile of the case. Since the girl was discovered Monday night, they've received some tips but none have proved viable.

Someone out there, the sheriff said, must have information about this little girl.

"In this world, it is possible for a family to not know a lot of people," Leonard said. "But rarely do we have an instance where a child is unknown to no one outside his or her own family."

Anyone with information about the girl can call the Galveston County Sheriff's Office at (866) 248-8477.

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updated 9:25 p.m. EDT, Fri November 2, 2007

Composite sketches released of girl stuffed in box

* NEW: Sketches show a girl with blond hair, wearing a pink shirt and skirt
* NEW: Child was between 2 and 3 years old, forensic dentist says
* Fisherman discovered plastic box containing girl's body on Monday
* Box washed ashore on uninhabited island near Galveston, Texas

(CNN) -- Authorities are hoping composite sketches will help them identify a child whose body, stuffed in a large plastic storage box, washed ashore this week on an uninhabited island in Texas.

The sketches, released Friday, show a girl with long blond hair, in a pink shirt and a matching skirt -- clothes she was reportedly wearing when she was found.

A forensic dentist has narrowed her age to between 2 and 3, the Galveston County Sheriff's office said.

Earlier, a self-described "cynical old cop" gently held a tiny shoe decorated with purple flowers as he begged for help in identifying the dead child Galveston police have dubbed "Baby Grace."

"She is more to us than just a case number, more to us than just an unidentified body. She is very much a human being," said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.

"She is someone's child, someone's grandchild, someone's cousin, someone's best friend, and to us, that is the most important part about this case," Tuttoilmondo said.

"We have adopted the name of Baby Grace because, there again, that is part of the emotional part of this case for us," he said, holding the sneaker identical to one of those the child was wearing when she was found Monday.

A fisherman became very upset after discovering the girl's body, in a large blue Sterilite plastic container, on an uninhabited island in Galveston's West Bay, Tuttoilmondo said.

A fishing tournament with hundreds of contestants was held over the weekend in the area where the girl's body was found. Police said they hope to track down contestants who may have seen something. Some of them may have fished near the site of the discovery.

"If we can get to every single person, that's exactly what we're going to do," Tuttoilmondo said.

The Galveston County medical examiner has said the child suffered skull fractures, but that he found no other broken bones.

"Anything relating to chronic abuse, old injuries, things like that, those are parts of the investigation that we still need to look at," Tuttoilmondo said.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the medical examiner said the girl had been dead for at least two weeks when her body was found.

"I don't often make an appeal of emotion, choosing to stick with the facts of the case as we should," Tuttoilmondo wrote in an e-mail to local reporters.

"However, a case such as this draws out emotions in all that touch it, even us cynical old cops. I ask that you buck the system and include the emotions you, like me, are experiencing in looking at this case, as a parent, a child, one who has children as part of your life or just as a human being."

Police have received hundreds of calls about the case, he said. "A number of them we followed up on have led us to go check on other children. Fortunately, we found all of them safe and sound, but nothing that's absolutely made a home run hit yet."

Other callers have wanted to know how they can help. Some have offered to donate graveyard plots for the child and have volunteered to help sift through information.

"The community where we are is a very close-knit, solid community, and they're all more than willing to help," Tuttoilmondo said.

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'Baby Grace' Sketch Unleashes Wave of Tips
Sketches of Toddler Whose Remains Were Found in Crate Prompt
Hundreds of Tips

HOUSTON, Nov. 5, 2007

Hundreds of tips from around the country have poured in after authorities asked for help in identifying the remains of a young girl discovered inside a storage box that washed ashore on Galveston Bay.

Sketches of the child, who police call "Baby Grace," were released Friday.

"We're sorting through a lot of leads," said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. "Nothing has hit a home run yet."

Forensic dental examination has narrowed the girl's age to between 2 and 3 years. She is described as white, 32 to 35 inches tall and 25 to 30 pounds. She had waist-long, wavy blond or light brown hair. She was wearing a Target-brand pink, flowing skirt, a pink or red shirt and white light-up tennis shoes with purple flowers on them.

Several callers believe that the child's body may be that of Madeleine McCann, a 4-year-old British girl whose disappearance from a resort hotel in Portugal in May has made international headlines, Tuttoilmondo said.

"Based on the totality of the circumstances, we do not believe it's her (Madeleine)," Tuttoilmondo said and added that his office is working with the FBI to completely rule out the possibility.

Local authorities and the FBI are going through missing person reports from across country in an effort to identify the girl.

"It's a slow process," Tuttoilmondo said. "We have to call the original investigating agency and see if anything matches up."

Galveston County Crime Stoppers set up a memorial fund to pay for her funeral as well as an account to offer a reward for anyone who helps to solve this crime.

A fisherman found the girl late Monday night. Her body was inside a blue plastic utility box that washed ashore along the Intercoastal Waterway.

The Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the child had been dead for at least two weeks and sustained a skull fracture. The cause of death has not been determined but authorities are treating the case as a homicide.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Galveston County sheriff's Office at 409-766-2222, the agency's tip line at 866-248-8477 or any Crime Stoppers organization.

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Service for Tot Found in Box on Beach
Memorial Held for Unidentified Girl Whose Body Was Found in Box on Texas Island

TIKI ISLAND, Texas Nov 5, 2007 (AP)

Residents held a memorial service for "Baby Grace," a young girl whose remains were discovered inside a storage box that washed ashore on Galveston Bay.

The toddler, found by a fisherman a week ago, remains unidentified despite hundreds of tips that have come from around the country since authorities released sketches of her on Friday. Authorities said forensic dental examination narrowed the girl's age to between 2 and 3 years.

At Sunday's memorial service, mourners gathered around a 4-foot-tall wooden cross bearing the words "In loving Memory of Baby Grace." The cross was later taken by boat to the small uninhabited island where the child's body was found.

"This is not the place to end this little girl's life," said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. "We won't quit until we figure it out."

The county Medical Examiner's Office ruled the child had been dead for at least two weeks. The cause of death was not determined, but she had a skull fracture and authorities are treating the case as a homicide.