Miscarriage story raises questions with investigators

Published Thursday, September 21, 2006

UNION (AP) - Abigale Woods’ relatives spent the afternoon yesterday tearing down missing-child posters emblazoned with the baby’s photo.

The infant, abducted Friday by a stranger who slashed her mother’s throat, is safe at home after being reunited with family members Tuesday night.

Their prayers have been answered, but their questions about why they were put through the five-day ordeal have not.

Lonedell resident Shannon Torrez, 36, is accused of attacking Stephenie Ochsenbine on Friday, slashing her throat and kidnapping Abby, then only a week old.

Police say Torrez claims that after giving birth to a stillborn child Friday morning, she drove by Ochsenbine’s home a few miles away on Highway 47 and saw the "Welcome Home Abby" sign that stood in the yard.

A probable cause statement says Torrez stopped at the home and asked to use the phone, then attacked Ochsenbine with a knife and left with the baby.

But there is some question about how the woman could have endured childbirth, dealt with her own deceased child and recovered enough physically to attack Ochsenbine - all in the same day.

On Tuesday, Torrez’s sister-in-law became suspicious about the woman’s account of having delivered the baby two days earlier. Dorothy Torrez said she noticed makeup on the baby’s forehead and when she rubbed it off found a strawberry-red birthmark that had been described by investigators in a missing-baby case nearby.

She confronted her sister-in-law and called the police, and hours later the healthy baby was turned over to law enforcement, who reunited Abby with her mom.

Shannon Torrez, also known as Shannon Beck, was charged yesterday with kidnapping, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action. She was being held on $1 million bond and was expected to appear in Franklin County Court today.

Franklin County Prosecutor Robert Parks said more charges could be filed.

Investigators say they aren’t convinced Shannon Torrez gave birth as she claims, and a search for the stillborn’s body has turned up nothing. Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said there hasn’t been any hard evidence to back up Torrez’s story.

"There’s speculation she really wasn’t" pregnant, Toelke said.