Questions loom 36 years after a newborn boy was taken from his grandmother’s Texas home.
Emmanuel Birts was hospitalized for several days after being born at his grandmother’s Dallas home in August 1989. A day after he was discharged, a woman who identified herself as a social worker named Debra Manning came to the residence, claiming she was following up from the hospital, according to The Charley Project.
The woman, who knew about Birts’ eye infection, returned a month later and told the baby’s family that he possibly has HIV. This was reportedly plausible because Birts’ mother used drugs during her pregnancy.
The following day, the woman came back with a letter purportedly from Child Welfare. The letter stated that Birts needed to be tested for HIV at the hospital. The woman told the family that she needed to take the infant, but she provided the mother with an excuse as to why she could not accompany them.
The next day, Birts’ mother went to Parkland Memorial Hospital to inquire about her son, leaving Birts home with his grandmother. During that time, the woman came to the home and informed Birts’ grandmother that she would return with a car seat for him. She came back an hour later, and Birts’ grandmother allowed her to take the baby, according to The Charley Project.
The woman — who left Birts’ eye medication behind — said she would bring him back at 2 p.m. Birts’ family reported him missing six hours after she failed to return him at the agreed-upon time.
While Birts’ grandmother did know a social worker named Debra Manning, the woman who allegedly took Birts is believed to have used an alias. Further, Child Protective Services never ordered Birts’ removal from the home.
Reports indicated that the woman who identified herself as Manning always wore a white lab coat and surgical stockings — which stood out as social workers typically wear street clothes. Investigators do believe the woman was a scammer who accessed Birts’ medical information.
Not only did Birts’ parents both test negative for HIV, but they both passed a polygraph test regarding their son’s apparent abduction.
The woman who claimed to be a social worker has never been identified or located. Birts also remains unaccounted for.
Anyone with information regarding Birts’ whereabouts is asked to call Dallas police at 214-671-4268.
Birts’ case is being covered as part of Crime Online’s “Finding the Lost: Black and Missing” series, which will feature a missing Black person every day in February. The full series can be read here.
[Featured image: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children]