Orosi mother suspected in infant

VISALIA — Nancy Ortiz was arrested Monday after her 3-year-old daughter was discovered roaming naked around the streets of Orosi.

The arrest, however, proved to be the beginning of the end of a lengthy investigation into the discovery of three abandoned infants in the same Orosi neighborhood since 2005 — one who died in December — a discovery that perplexed police, angered a community and turned a nation’s attention to the problem of child dumping.

Ortiz, 22, of Orosi, is believed to be the mother of the three children.

She is now the prime suspect in the death and abandonment of the infant who was found dead in a pickup truck Dec. 3. The infant was later nicknamed Angelita DeOrosi.

Ortiz is expected to be arraigned later this week.

SheriffÂ’s officials are awaiting the results of DNA testing by the Department of Justice to determine if she will be charged with abandoning the other babies.

SheriffÂ’s officials said Tuesday that tips from the community led detectives to Ortiz, who has two other children in addition to the three she allegedly abandoned.

Ortiz is currently being held without bail in the Bob Wiley Detention Facility.

“We place no higher values on anything here in the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department than our children,” Sheriff Bill Wittman said at a Tuesday morning news conference. “Whenever a child comes up missing, injured or hurt, a red flag goes up and everyone responds.”

Neighbors of Ortiz — some who were involved in the discovery of the infants — expressed relief that an arrest was made, but said the shock and anger is still with them.

“We still don’t understand how someone could do this,” said Griselda Aranzazu, 42, who is the wife of a local pastor. “There are so many other options; we just don’t know why someone would leave their baby to die.”

However, family members of Nancy Ortiz, who prior to Monday had only a few traffic citations on her adult record, vowed to support her, in spite of evidence that investigators said links the woman to the incidents.

“My daughter said it is not her baby, and I believe her until someone proves otherwise,” said Nancy Ortiz’s mother, who is also named Nancy Ortiz.

Public contributes to investigation

Wittman credited Monday’s arrest to the news media “for keeping the story alive” and hard-working investigators who left no stone unturned throughout the two-and-a-half-year ordeal.

“The tips that came from the public eventually led to the arrest of the suspect,” Wittman said.

In terms of his officers, Wittman said that Cutler-Orosi deputies “never made a car stop without asking for information about this child.”

The sheriff singled out Detective Jim Franks, the lead investigator into the child dumpings. Franks, Wittman said, “put his heart and soul in this case and worked hundreds of hours to make sure this case would be solved.”

The ordeal began 6:53 a.m. on Feb 10, 2005, when neighbors discovered a baby boy on a bench under the front window of a home on the 41700 block of Paradise Court. The house, it turns out, is three houses up from OrtizÂ’s home.

The umbilical cord was still attached. The baby was taken to Kaweah Delta District Hospital where doctors advised deputies the baby was probably born within two hours of being located.

Jose Osorio, 51, discovered the second infant less than one year later at 6:45 a.m. on Jan. 8, 2006, inside the bed of a pickup truck parked in front of a home in the 12300 block of Sequoia Avenue — just down the street from the first discovery.

Doctors at Kaweah Delta told deputies this baby was likely born 12 hours to a day before it was located.

Finally, deputies responded to a house on the northwest corner of Road 124 and Sequoia Avenue, where the Pena family discovered AngelitaÂ’s dead body, wrapped in a sweatshirt, again in the back of a pickup truck in the driveway of the home.

In March, the SheriffÂ’s Department announced that DNA testing suggested the three children were borne from the same mother, and the first two babies were likely full siblings.

To bring attention to the bizarre and heartbreaking ordeal, a memorial service was held for baby Angelita March 28 at St. MaryÂ’s Catholic Church in Cutler. The baby was buried in Smith Mountain Cemetery in Dinuba.

National news networks, including CNN, Fox news and MSNBC, covered the funeral.

The incidents also spurred county government into action to provide more locations where mothers could surrender babies without fear of prosecution.

Prior to the incident, the closest location to Orosi was Kaweah Delta, and there were only two others countywide — Tulare and Sierra View district hospitals.

The Board of Supervisors declared 17 county fire stations as “Safe Surrender” locations Dec. 19, and followed the action March 20 by designating 13 city fire stations across the county as surrender locations.

Franks said the tips from the public after AngelitaÂ’s well-publicized funeral, the countyÂ’s actions and the announcement of a $5,000 reward by the Tulare County Secret Witness Program were invaluable.

There were 75 leads generated from calls the department received from the public, Franks said.

Two of those leads — an anonymous tip and another tip generated by a patrol officer — led them to Ortiz’s home at the end of a cul-de-sac on Paradise Court in May, Franks said.

Franks would not elaborate as to who provided the tip.

DNA samples were taken from Ortiz during the May meeting, and were delivered to the Department of Justice Lab in Fresno, where they were compared to the AngelitaÂ’s DNA, Franks said.

The DNA between the infant and Ortiz came back a match last week, Franks said.

Franks said he wanted questions answered about the other two children prior to contacting Ortiz, but the opportunity presented itself with MondayÂ’s arrest.

Deputies arrested Ortiz after they found her daughter between one-quarter and one-third of a mile away from the home, Sgt. Chris Douglass said.

Ortiz was at her house.

“That was totally coincidental,” Franks said. “She was at my office, so we decided to book her on my case also.”

OrtizÂ’s two other children, her 4-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, were taken into protective custody, Franks said. The family, however, said they have custody of the son.

Franks would not say if other family members are going to be charged in connection to the dumping, citing an ongoing investigation. No information was disclosed about who the father may be.

Franks said the case had taken an emotional toll on all of the investigators and deputies.

“This one we were glad to solve,” Franks said. “When it comes to crime, our children are the most precious and most vulnerable of all.”

Tulare County District AttorneyÂ’s Office officials would not comment on the case at the time of publication because they had not received the SheriffÂ’s DepartmentÂ’s report.