Sobbing Toddler Returned to Her Biological Parents

Jan and Roberta DeBoer watched tearfully Monday as their attorney carried a wailing 2 1/2-year-old Jessica from the only home she ever knew, ending their 29-month custody battle with the toddler’s biological parents, Daniel and Cara Schmidt.

Friends restrained the couple from following after the girl screamed, “Mommy!” as she was whisked away from the two-story house, which was adorned with signs that made one last heart-breaking but futile plea.

“Dan and Cara, please don’t take our little Jessica away,” read the signs, punctuated with a red heart that was split in two.

Attorney Suellyn Scarnecchia strapped the wailing toddler into a car seat in a waiting minivan, then climbed in beside her. Weeping neighbors waved goodby as the van pulled away. The DeBoers declined to talk to reporters, but friends said the child was confused and upset.

“She’s 2 years old,” Richetta Van Sickle told reporters in front of the DeBoers’ home. “How can you tell your child she’s going away and she’s never going to see you again?”

Earlier, a stoic Jan DeBoer loaded a few of Jessica’s belongings into the minivan, including some of her favorite toys, a child’s bed and stroller and a car seat.

Wiping away tears, the couple put Jessica in a swing in their yard and spent about 15 minutes playing before returning to the house to spend the last hour alone.

Scarnecchia said that in the van, Jessica cried, “I want my dad. Where’s my dad?” as she rode to the rendezvous with the Schmidts.

Within the hour they were on a chartered plane, flying toward a new life in Iowa. The plane landed at an undisclosed location and the Schmidts’ attorney, Marian Faupel, drove to Cedar Rapids to speak to waiting reporters.

She said Jessica slept and opened presents, including a plastic airplane with passengers inside.

Jessica, who is calling the Schmidts by their first names, never asked about the DeBoers during the flight, Faupel said.

The new family went into seclusion, rather than return immediately to their home in Blairstown, Iowa, she said.

“It will take a while to cement this relationship,” Faupel said.

Earlier Monday, the Iowa Supreme Court rejected a request for an emergency stay of the transfer.

Jessica had been told she would be moving to Iowa, and meetings over the last three weeks between the Schmidts and their daughter were intended to ease the move.

In Blairstown, the Schmidts’ small, white home was wrapped in a yellow ribbon and decorated with a sign proclaiming “Welcome Home Anna.” Below “Anna,” the name the Schmidts chose for the girl, was “Jessica” in smaller letters.

The Schmidts have said they will call the girl Jessica, at least for a while. They arranged for a therapist if necessary.

Many in Blairstown, population 700, just want life to return to normal for the Schmidts.

Carol DeNeve, who lives a block from the Schmidts, said: “There’s nothing anybody can do to change it. I feel sorry for both of the families. It went on too long.”

Cara Schmidt gave up custody of the girl shortly after giving birth Feb. 8, 1991, in Cedar Rapids. She was single at the time.

The DeBoers planned to adopt Jessica. But Cara Schmidt, who initially named the wrong man as the father, changed her mind. She informed Schmidt of his paternity on Feb. 27, 1991, and they began trying to get their daughter back the next month.

The Schmidts were married in April, 1992.