The State - News from June 20, 1989

A juvenile court judge in San Jose has granted temporary custody of a 3-year-old Cleveland girl, abandoned by her emotionally troubled mother 25 days ago, to the child’s maternal grandmother. “It’s a nice ending,” attorney Elizabeth Goodley said. Natalie Hart was found May 25 at San Jose International Airport, where she had been playing near a ticket counter. Natalie could not tell authorities where she came from and it took police more than two weeks to trace her mother, Michael Ellen Hart, 38, to Cleveland, where she was under psychiatric care at a hospital. Investigators discovered that the mother had hopped across the country on airline flights, abandoning Natalie in San Jose and then a 3-month-old daughter, Gabrielle, near Hobby Airport in Houston. The moment Natalie saw her grandmother, Juanita Hart, 60, she ran to her shouting, “Nanna! Nanna!” and gave her a big hug as the grandmother burst into tears. A judge in Houston granted custody of Gabrielle to the grandmother’s other daughter, Toni Farmer.