Lost innocence: Baby April Whiteside case resonates 10 years later

ROCK FALLS – When word spread that a bludgeoned toddler was among four people found dead in a Rock Falls apartment in June, the shaken community responded with a mix of sorrow and anger.

For people who had been around awhile, that awful feeling was familiar. They remembered the last time a child was killed in their town, nearly a decade earlier.

On April 10, 1999, three boys riding their bikes on Riverdale Road along the Hennepin Feeder Canal, stumbled across the body of a dark-haired, 7-pound baby. The girl, whose identity was not immediately known, became known as Baby April Whiteside.

Her mother, then 21
and pregnant again, was her killer.

That day, Whiteside County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Larry Van Dyke was called to the canal. He had been with the department 8 years at that point, and never had seen a case like this one.

"We respond to so many different types of tragedies," Van Dyke said. "It's something that I guess you just never get used to."

Although the details of that day have become fuzzy over the years, the emotion remains the same, he said.

"You just keep wondering why someone would do something like this," he said, "and how it could be prevented."

Two days after the gruesome discovery, an autopsy was unable to determine an exact cause of death, but "asphyxia or willful neglect" could not be ruled out, according to court documents.

Tips to Whiteside County Crime Stoppers led investigators to a Sterling woman, who denied the child was hers. It would take more than a year for DNA tests to confirm that Catalina Mendoza was indeed Baby April's mother.

Mendoza, charged with first-degree murder in May 2000, told investigators she delivered the baby by the side of a road, cut the umbilical cord with a flathead screwdriver, then drove to the canal and threw the baby in.

In January 2001, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. She was sentenced to 17 years in prison the following March.

The prosecutor, Whiteside County State's Attorney Gary Spencer, believes the sentence was just.

"I thought then, and I think now, that there is a part of every human being who feels 'an eye for an eye,'" Spencer said. "I think that given her age and the circumstances and the trauma that Catalina Mendoza had gone through in her life, the penalty of 17 years was appropriate."

According to court records, Mendoza said she was in an abusive relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Olade, then 26, the father of her first child. Olade was not the father of April Whiteside, and Mendoza said she threw the baby out at Olade's insistence.

She said, though, that he never threatened her or forced her to do it.

In a 2001 interview with Sauk Valley Newspapers, Olade said he didn't know Mendoza was pregnant and had nothing to do with the death of the baby.

"I believe she'll do whatever she can to get out of this," he said in 2001. "If she can blame somebody else, then she is going to try and do that."

Olade was not charged.

According to court documents, Mendoza was of below-average intelligence and, after the baby's death, was severely depressed and suffered from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.

Paroled in October 2007, she no longer lives in Whiteside County, and declined to be interviewed for this article. Rock Falls attorney Jim Mertes, who represented Mendoza in the case, also declined to comment.



Other cases

The Baby April Whiteside case was not the county's first child homicide.

In 1989, an infant was found in a garbage bag at Rock Creek near Erie. A 26-year-old Erie woman was charged with first-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, but charges were dropped when DNA evidence could not establish her as the mother.

"When Baby April occurred, those of us who had been involved in law enforcement for a period of time, our thoughts immediately went back to the Rock Creek baby case," Spencer said. "There is just no case quite as tragic as a child homicide."

In June, the body of 2-year-old Dayan Blake was found in a Rock Falls apartment, along with the bodies of his mother, Kilynna Blake, 20, her boyfriend, Brock Branson, 29, and friend Kenneth Ulve, 25.

Police say all four were killed by Nicholas T. Sheley, 29 of Sterling during a 6-day, two-state killing spree. He also is charged with murder in the deaths of a Galesburg man, a Sterling man and an Arkansas couple. He awaits trial in Knox County jail.

Spencer, the county's top prosecutor for 30 years, also has worked in the Department of Child and Family Services.

That doesn't make these cases any easier, he said.

"Any case involving a child is more difficult, not only for me, but for any prosecutor I've ever known," Spencer said. "You lay awake at night, and you find yourself looking at your own kids and thanking God that not only your kids, but most of the kids in this country, [don't] have to go through something like that."



In memory

Two years after the tiny body was discovered, Illinois legislators passed the Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act, which allows parents to leave a newborn at a hospital, fire department or police department without facing criminal or civil penalties.

Such safe-haven laws can help prevent tragedies like Baby April Whiteside, Van Dyke said.

"There is help out there for anyone that is unable to deal with their situation," he said. "There is someone around to help, whether it's dealing with a child that is unexpected or unwanted."

In 2002, the nonprofit April House opened in Morrison. There, forensic interviews with child victims of sexual and physical abuse are conducted in a safe, child-friendly environment.

Named in part for the month of April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month, it also stands as a living memorial to Baby April Whiteside.

"What we need to learn is that all of the community needs to be in support of families and children," Executive Director Johanna Hager said. "I think that this tragic situation gave us the opportunity to do that and see that it takes a whole community.

"It also makes us see what we can do to help individuals and children to make the community a healthier and safer place to be."

The safe haven law

The Abandoned Newborn Protection Act became law on Aug. 17, 2001; it allows parents to hand over a baby 7 days old or younger at any Illinois hospital, emergency medical facility, staffed fire station or police station anonymously and without civil or criminal penalty.

As of 2008, 48 infants have been relinquished in Illinois, while 54 unsafe abandonments and 27 infant deaths were reported.

On the Web: Visit www.saveabandonedbabies.org for more information.

The Baby April Whiteside case

April 10, 1999 

Three young boys riding their bikes on Riverdale Road along the Hennepin Feeder Canal around 2 p.m. discover the body of a infant girl. They call 911, and investigators from the Whiteside County Sheriff's Department and the Rock Falls Police Department come to the scene.

April 12, 1999

An autopsy fails to determine a cause of death, but also cannot rule out asphyxia or willful neglect.

April 19, 1999

About 70 mourners attend the funeral of the child, named Baby April Whiteside, at Riverside Cemetery in Sterling.

April 27, 1999

Acting on tips from witnesses, Lee County Sheriff's Department deputies question Catalina Mendoza, then 21. Mendoza denies she is the mother. A cheek swab is taken from Mendoza for DNA testing. It is sent to a lab in Maryland in November and comes back the following April.

May 8, 2000

Mendoza is confronted with DNA evidence that shows she is Baby April's mother.

She tells investigators she started having contractions at home and drove away because she didn't want to give birth at her house. She drove to Riverdale Road, got out of her car and delivered the baby on the side of the road. Believing the baby to be dead, she drove to the canal and threw the baby into the "river."

In a second statement, she says the father of her first child, Nicholas Olade, drove her to Riverdale Road, and encouraged her to give birth by the side of the road. She cut the umbilical cord with a flathead screwdriver, then he told her to throw the baby into the canal, she tells police.

May 9, 2000

Mendoza makes her first court appearance, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and ordered held on $1 million bond.

May 24, 2000

A Whiteside County grand jury indicts Mendoza on four counts of first-degree murder.

Jan. 8, 2001

Mendoza pleads guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder.

March 6, 2001

Two callers who provided information leading to Mendoza's arrest are rewarded with $2,500 from Whiteside County Crime Stoppers.

March 26, 2001

Mendoza is sentenced to 17 years in prison.

October 27, 2007

Mendoza is paroled after serving more than 6 years.

How you can help

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, designed to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect and encourage individuals and communities to support children and families.

On the Web: Visit www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/preventionmonth for more information.