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Thread: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

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    Senior Member Hayalet's Avatar
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    Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

    Interesting case, i can't work out why they think she chucked the baby off the cliff tho.

    http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endid=14485338

    The mother was out on bail June 02, 2008 and pregnant. I wonder if they let her keep the child?


    Few attend Abbygail hearing
    Posted By Kyle Rea, TIMES-JOURNAL STAFF

    http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/...aspx?e=1389378


    A preliminary hearing opened Wednesday for a St. Thomas mother charged with indignity to a human body after the disappearance of her one-month-old daughter, Abbygail.

    But a case that generated plenty of public interest when it first broke in September, 2007, drew only four people to court proceedings.

    Dressed in a green top with a green-and-white skirt, Sara Whittington, 33, sat quietly, taking notes and listening to testimony during her appearance in St. Thomas court. She was flanked by her two lawyers, Bill Glover and Bevan Earhart.

    Justice Gregory Pockele is hearing the case.

    A preliminary hearing allows both the Crown and defence to call witnesses and test the evidence in a case. At the end, the presiding judge will determine if there's enough evidence to send the case to trial.

    Details of the hearing are under a court-ordered publication ban.

    Only four people -- two members of the public, along with representatives from the Times-Journal and London Free Press -- attended the hearing Wednesday morning. Two people were in the public gallery for afternoon proceedings.

    Abbygail was last seen with her mother on Sept. 18, 2007. Two days later, Whittington was found unconscious and in a diabetic coma in her 88 Confederation Dr. apartment. Her daughter was nowhere to be found and that immediately sparked an extensive police investigation. Abbygail's disappearance also galvanized the community which came together to search nearby neighbourhoods as well as wooded areas and fields for the infant.

    Abbygail has never been found.

    Whittington was subsequently arrested in May, 2008 and charged with indignity to a human body.

    She was released on bail May 5 with a $25,000 surety with conditions.

    The preliminary hearing is set to resume at 10 a.m. today and continue on Friday. Feb. 2 has also been set aside as a fourth day, if necessary.
    __________________


    Video of her talking here http://www.atv.ca/london/news_48815.aspx

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    Senior Member deeply shaded's Avatar
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    Re: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

    There was a big discussion about this when she first disappeared on the CTV board. I don't remember anything about the cliff chucking, though.
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    Senior Member Hayalet's Avatar
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    Re: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

    Just noticed the article i posted had nothing about cliffs, so here is another, within a myspace blog-

    Monday, June 02, 2008


    Abbygails mother out on bail, and pregnant....
    Current mood: nauseated
    Category: News and Politics


    The spot where Police beleive abbygails body was laid to rest illegally.

    BABY ABBYGAIL: Sara Whittington is charged with causing an indignity to a body in her infant's disappearance
    Mother gets bail


    ST. THOMAS -- Lake Erie's waters roil and crash at the edge of steep Hawk Cliff.

    The wind picks up at the bird watcher's haven, with its breathtaking view of the lake, just east of Port Stanley.

    It's there, St. Thomas police believe, that Sara Whittington, 33, disposed of the body of her baby girl, Abbygail Dice.

    Police made the startling revelation in a news release yesterday, just as Whittington -- six months pregnant -- was in court here for a bail hearing, charged with causing an indignity to a body.

    Police have searched the Hawk Cliff area a number of times during the last seven months, looking for the child who was one month old when she vanished from her mother's care.

    They were there again last Saturday, a day after Whittington was charged.

    But no body has been found.

    "We come here to enjoy this spot," Kristina Nethercott, who lives near the cliff, said yesterday while dog-walking.

    Whittington was released on $25,000, no-deposit bail into the care of her parents, Gail and William Dice of London, with whom she's lived since the infant's bizarre disappearance in September from her St. Thomas apartment.

    The expressionless Whittington, dressed in a loud paisley-print maternity shirt, hair pulled back in a loose bun, sat quietly in the prisoner's box, eyeglasses in her hand, as Justice of the Peace Jamie Shortt made the order to release her.

    A publication ban was imposed on all the evidence at the hearing.

    Whittington must live with her parents and go to court for approval should she want to make an address change.

    She must also stay in Ontario and is prohibited from having any weapons.

    Whittington said a soft "yes" -- so softly, she had to say it twice for the court reporter to hear -- when asked if she understood.

    Her lawyer, Bill Glover, who has offered unwavering support for his client for months, asked that the case return to court May 13 for Crown disclosure.

    He said he wants to "fast-track" the case.

    Outside court -- after Whittington and her parents tried to avoid the media, leaving through a side door and speeding away in the family's car -- Glover said he wants a preliminary hearing held "in the next month or two."

    "I want the wheels of justice to move quickly," Glover said, mainly because Whittington is pregnant.

    His client suffers from diabetes and was found confused and disoriented in her apartment last Sept. 20, two days after the baby was last seen.

    She was hospitalized several days while police looked for the child.

    During recent months, there has been a $25,000 reward offered by Whittington for the baby's return and Glover has suggested someone else was at Whittington's Confederation Drive apartment that night.

    Asked about his client's health, Glover was coy.

    "Who could feel well in these circumstances?" he asked.

    The criminal charge has shocked the community, especially those who took up Whittington's cause, held vigils for Abbygail, wore peach ribbons of support and started web pages in her honour.

    "I'm very disgusted with this, it's awful," said Tiffany Adams, who started a Facebook page with her mother for Abbygail and was in the courtroom for the hearing.

    "I, myself, am a mother and I don't understand how that happens," she said.

    Adams said she still "has faith" the baby will be found, but has lost hope she will be alive.

    St. Thomas Const. Anders Nielsen said searchers have found no trace of the baby.

    "They haven't found anything and I can't say how many times we've been out there (Hawk Cliff)," he said.

    He declined to go into details of the investigation or any evidence that has been gathered.

    Nielsen said Hawk Cliff -- only minutes south of St. Thomas, at the end of what is the city's Fairview Avenue -- is "a very rough area" and "very difficult terrain to search."

    All attempts to find the missing girl have come up "negative," he said.

    The birds have returned to the cliff and so will the nature lovers. But the police belief that the missing baby's body was, or still is, there has suddenly changed the place.

    "You don't think of that in a small area, a small rural area," Nethercott said.

    "Or even in St. Thomas."

    Jane Sims is a Free Press justice reporter. 

    http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?f...ogID=401781343

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    Senior Member deeply shaded's Avatar
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    Re: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

    So she's not charged with killing the baby, just disposing of the body illegally? What do they think the baby died from?
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    Re: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

    [quote author=deeply shaded link=topic=19647.msg1261693#msg1261693 date=1241011202]
    So she's not charged with killing the baby, just disposing of the body illegally? What do they think the baby died from?
    [/quote]

    I don't know either, i can't seem to find if she pled guilty or not guilty, what, if any, evidence she gave. Or any mention on who got her pregnant or if she was allowed to keep the child. Very strange case.

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    Re: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

    Just from what i am reading I dont understand this at all. She fell into a coma and then the baby went missing? She was in the hospital as they were searching? I wonder what evidence they have against her. I also wonder why she isnt charged with the baby's death and only disposing of the baby. Wouldnt that mean most likely the baby died of natural causes(maybe sids?) and panicked and disposed of the body?

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    Re: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007



    I was reading some old stuff to refresh my memory. The grandma of the baby had tried to call her daughter, who is diabetic, and she didn't answer her phone so she went to check on her. Nobody would answer the door so the apartment manager opened the door and they found her moaning and confused and she had no idea where her baby was.

    I'm not sure about the evidence against her at this point.
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    Re: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

    Three high-profile Elgin County trials, including one involving the death of a senior and another involving the disappearance of an infant, have been scheduled for early 2011.

    The trial date for Suzanne Heywood, 46, charged with second-degree murder in the death of St. Thomas senior Marcel Lachance in November 2006, is Jan. 4.

    Assistant Crown attorney Elizabeth Maguire told Justice Thomas Heeney, who was scheduling court dates this week, that all of the four weeks set aside for the Heywood trial may not be needed.

    Sara Whittington, 33, charged with causing an indignity to a body in connection with the disappearance of her one-month-old daughter Abbygail Dice, is also slated to go to trial Jan. 4.

    Both cases come up in court again on June 7.

    A trial date was also set for Charles Avery, 46, charged with failing to remain at the scene of an accident in which Jason Vandenberg, 36, of St. Thomas was struck and killed on Southdale Line in October 2008. His trial date is Feb. 7.

    http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/05/30/14194066.html


    I still don't really understand these charges. If they don't have a body how can they charge her with indignities to the body? On the other hand, if they can charge that without the body why can't they charge her with murder?
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    Re: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

    There is a Facebook Group about this here:

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17019304503

    Gonna read up on this one now.


    ETA  And another:

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17001214516
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    Re: Abbygail Dice (1 month old) missing Sept. 18, 2007

    [quote author=Laurie_khikhi link=topic=19647.msg1261825#msg1261825 date=1241021500]
    Just from what i am reading I dont understand this at all. She fell into a coma and then the baby went missing? She was in the hospital as they were searching? I wonder what evidence they have against her. I also wonder why she isnt charged with the baby's death and only disposing of the baby. Wouldnt that mean most likely the baby died of natural causes(maybe sids?) and panicked and disposed of the body?
    [/quote]

    That confused me too, and considering I live fairly close to St. Thomas and do not even remember hearing about this, I decided to do some searching, and came across this article:  http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080502/abbygail_disappearance_080502/20080502?hub=TopStories

    Which says;  ""After a six-month investigation, St. Thomas Police have determined that on September 18th, 2007, Baby Abbygail died while in the company of her mother, Sara Whittington," states a news release from St. Thomas City Police Service. ".

    There are no details as to how they came to this conclusion, which I find weird considering the fact that they've never found the body.  I would think the assumption would be that her mother was involved in her death, if they somehow concluded that she died while in the company of her mother. 
    Quote Originally Posted by blighted star View Post
    I was about to be annoyed that this thread was still active, but I see now it's morphed into offers of sex for chilli confectionary, so carry on guys :)

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    Senior Member Hayalet's Avatar
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    Trial details and other updates

    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/20...-17394916.html

    February 24, 2011

    Dream alibi in dead baby case all 'lies'
    By JANE SIMS, QMI Agency


    Sara Whittington leaves the St Thomas courthouse Thursday with her lawyer, Bill Glover, after being found guilty of offering an indignity to a dead body in the disapperance of her three-week-old daughter Abbygail Dice. (Morris Lamont, QMI Agency)
    ST. THOMAS, Ont. - What Sara Whittington said she dreamed about has become her real-life nightmare.

    Calling her "dream" defence "self-serving" and "concocted," a judge Thursday found the St. Thomas mother of missing three-week-old baby Abbygail Dice guilty of offering an indignity to a dead body.

    "No body is required in this case and it is unnecessary to make a finding to where the body may have been thrown," Superior Court Justice Peter Hockin said before finding that the baby died and the 35-year old mother is guilty of disposing of the remains.

    What happened to the child "had to be intentional," he said, pointing out Whittington didn't take the remains to a hospital, police or funeral home.

    "She did not deliver the remains to the proper authorities or left them somewhere or secreted them," he said, calling that "an indecent act, an indignity" and "morally reprehensible."

    His finding goes far to explain the child's disappearance, an event that sparked wide shock across St. Thomas and vigils aimed at finding the baby more than three years ago.



    As the 90-minute decision went on, Whittington dabbed away tears and looked straight ahead, seated beside her lawyer, Bill Glover.

    Hockin's decision was made after a 15-day trial this year at which Whittington testified she has no memory of what happened between Sept. 18 and midway through Sept. 20, 2007, when she was found alone in bed in her apartment by her mother. Whittington said later she dreamed she threw the baby over a cliff.

    Hockin rejected her evidence, calling the memory loss "convenient" and after an exhaustive review of both the Crown and defence's cases concluded Whittington's version was faulty.

    Hockin rejected Glover's argument that Abbygail's father, Chris Meadows, was responsible for taking the child, saying the idea was "totally without support" and calling it "rank speculation."

    While he referred to Meadows as "rough and ready," he said he believed his evidence and a friend of his who both said they were in the Elora-Fergus area at the time of Abbygail's disappearance.

    Whittington and Meadows conceived another daughter two months after Abbygail disappeared.

    Hockin said he also was aware of Whittington's demeanor during meetings with undercover police officers and in the courtroom during the trial that pointed to "a deep and wide sadness" when discussing matters relating to her child's death.

    "This was not crying about dreams," he said.

    He referred to moments when Whittington sobbed at the defence table.

    But there were other times, he said, when she gave "the sense of player," pointing to one instance when, during testimony, Whittington put her head down, then leaned over in the witness box with her answer as to what she remembered.

    Hockin found that while Whittington said she had no memory, there was evidence she tested several people and drove to two Shoppers Drug Marts -- activities that would require complex cognitive function.

    He also spent time reviewing statements made to the undercover police officers who invited her to tell them what happened to help her concoct a plan to keep her out of jail.

    Whittington told the officers more than once that after the nap, Abbygail, who had been sleeping on her chest, "wouldn't wake up." She nodded when she was asked if the baby died in the apartment and described the child being limp and her lips blue. She took the body to the water and then the baby was gone, she said.

    "I was a nice girl until something happened so now I am bad," she told the officers.

    In her testimony, Whittington said she made the story up.

    In her early interviews with the police, Hockin noted, Whittington said she had no trouble with her memory before and would never leave the baby alone.

    Yet on the store security tapes, Whittington was seen alone. Hockin said he was "drawn inescapably to conclude the accused need not to concern herself with (her) daughter because her daughter had died."

    And the purchases of sleep medication seemed to point to a suicide attempt.

    The Crown's case pointed to Whittington throwing the baby off Hawk Cliff, just east of Port Stanley along the rugged shore of Lake Erie.

    Whittington said the baby in her dream was Maggie Simpson, the baby in the TV show The Simpsons, and she relived the dream in animation and in colour. It ended with Maggie up in the air.

    Whittington took the undercover officer to Hawk Cliff and showed him where she said the baby was airborne. In testimony, she said she had never been there before until she took the officer.

    The dreams, Hockin said, were "lies and unbelievable." And he noted there was never any report to the police that the child was missing.

    Hockin scheduled a sentencing for April 28 and asked to see news conferences from the early days of the case involving Glover during the initial search of the baby.

    "There may be an element of mischief to it," Hockin said.

    "It's matter of concern to me that the accused embarked on some sort of public campaign."

    Outside the courtroom, Glover said he believes the news conferences will show the level of co-operation shown by Whittington to find her child.

    He called the case "long and difficult" but said he and Whittington respected Hockin's finding that the child is dead.

    "It's tragic for my client as a mother of Abbygail to hear the judge rule that Abbygail is dead," he said.

    Asked if he thought Abbygail is alive, Glover simply replied "I don't know."

    jane.sims@sunmedia.ca

    twitter.com/JaneatLFPress

    WHITTINGTON CHRONOLOGY

    Sept. 20, 2007 - Sara Whittington, a diabetic, is found alone and confused in her St. Thomas apartment by her mother. Her three-week old daughter, Abbygail Dice, is gone. Over the next few weeks there are exhaustive vigils and searches.

    October, 2007 - Police release security footage of Whittington alone in a St. Thomas Shoppers Drug Mart on Sept. 18, 2007. She is named a suspect. Defence lawyer Bill Glover suggests the baby was taken and that Whittington's memory is affected.

    May 2008 - Whittington is arrested and charged with offering an indignity to a dead body and police say they believe she disposed of the dead child off Hawk Cliff east of Port Stanley. She appears in court noticibly pregnant and it's later determined she is carrying a child fathered by Abbygail's father, Chris Meadows. She is released on bail.

    February 2009 - After an Ontario Court preliminary hearing, Whittington's case is sent to trial.

    August 2009 - Lawyer Bill Glover is allowed to stay on the case after the Crown petitioned to have him removed, indicating he might be a potential witness.

    Jan. 5, 2011 - Superior Court trial begins before Justice Peter Hockin.

    Feb. 24, 2010 - Whittington found guilty.

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    Senior Member Hayalet's Avatar
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    http://www.torontosun.com/2011/04/29...r-own-creation


    ST. THOMAS, ONT. - Sara Whittington "has looked at the face of hell" since her baby vanished.

    Out of work, her assets exhausted and living in isolation with her parents, she's become a community pariah with few options, her lawyer says.

    Bill Glover also told a judge Thursday her existence is "a hell of her own creation."

    Whittington, 36, was in the Superior Court of Justice for sentencing after she was found guilty in February of offering an indignity to a dead body.

    Her infant daughter, Abbygail Dice, only three weeks old, disappeared from her mother's care in St. Thomas, Ont., in September 2007.

    Whittington took the position she couldn't remember what happened to the baby and had a dream that she threw her child off a cliff - a defence rejected by Justice Peter Hockin, who was clear he's convinced Whittington knows where the baby's body is.

    Thursday, Hockin heard the defence plead for mercy and sentence the former registered practical nurse to a conditional sentence that would include house arrest.

    But the Crown is looking for prison time, arguing Whittington should spend two to three years behind bars.

    Before weighing the opposing submissions, Hockin heard victim impact statements written by Abbygail's father, Chris Meadows, his two children, Brodie and Kayla, and his mother, Irene Dischman.

    Hockin decided not to hear from Meadow's fiance, Tammy Mammolite, who began seeing Meadows in May 2008, a month after Whittington was charged. Whittington gave birth to another baby girl - Meadows' daughter - in August 2008.

    Meadow's comments were read by a victim/witness support worker and described how the baby's loss "has scarred me forever."

    "I should have done more to get you away from her," Meadows wrote.

    Dischman spoke about how she's "watched my grandchildren lose their innocence," how the right to bury their loved one was "taken away from us."

    "All would have been avoided had the truth been told," she said.

    In court Thursday, Hockin watched and read archived media coverage of the case, including TV footage from a community march to the St. Thomas police station, which Whittington attended, during the early days of the search for the baby. He also reviewed QMI Agency articles about a news conference in 2008 held by Glover and Whittington.

    Hockin said he was concerned that Whittington's participation in those events was "akin to mischief."

    "She knew, as they worried, they ought not to be worried - she had disposed of that child," he said.

    At times sounding like he was trying to re-argue his case, Glover suggested Whittington went to great lengths to help the police try to find her lost child. The body never was found.

    Glover, who pleaded for mercy for his client, said her lost memories shouldn't be taken as a lack of remorse or denial she may have been responsible for the baby's disappearance. She has, he said "known and always known she failed as a parent."

    Hockin repeatedly reminded Glover of the judge's "very significant finding" that Whittington was guilty.

    "She didn't tell me the truth. She told me a lie," he said.

    The judge also said it was his impression, while watching Whittington at trial, that "she felt horrible about this."

    Glover tried to argue the state of Whittington's mental health at the time, but Hockin said the time for that was over.

    Glover said Whittington is "destitute and on welfare." She's exhausted her savings, after paying out $40,000 in legal fees for her defence and a custody battle for the baby born after Abbygail vanished.

    He suggested a 12- to 18-month conditional sentence, with the first six months spent in house arrest.

    But assistant Crown attorney Doug Walker, who called for a prison sentence of two to three years, said there must be acknowledgment of "an absolute tragedy" that involved so many people.

    Walker said, and Hockin agreed, there's a legal onus to report a death and it wasn't for Whittington to decide her child had died. No coroner or medical personnel saw the baby to determine cause of death.

    "In this case, we'll never know if the child could have been rescued," Hockin said.

    He added that the indignity laws were "so important."

    "It's not just sanctity of life, it's the preservation of human life." he said. Burial, he added, "is one of the most important rituals in life."

    Walker said Whittington's efforts to avoid criminal responsibility have denied the baby's family a sense of closure.

    "The family of Abbygail still don't know to this day the cause of death, why and where she is. There is little comfort," he said. "I submit Ms. Whittington can no longer hide behind 'I don't remember'."

    Hockin is expected to sentence Whittington May 6.


    Sentencing- http://www.petitiononlinecanada.com/...ygail-dice/125

    In April 2011 she was found guilty of the indignity charge and on May 6th 2011 was sentenced to 2 years less a day on this charge.

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