No Charge Filed Against Mother in 1992 Incident : Crime: Woman whose newborn was found dead in a car trunk was accused of abandoning another but wasn’t prosecuted.

The woman whose newborn son was found dead in the trunk of her car Friday was never prosecuted for abandoning an infant daughter born at home in 1992--a year after she relinquished for adoption another child born at home, authorities said Monday.

As investigators prepared to seek murder charges as early as today against 36-year-old Jackie Lynn Anderson of Fullerton in connection with last week’s grim discovery, new details released Monday showed that Anderson had a history of giving up children whom she delivered at home, one of whom required emergency medical attention.

Anderson was arrested for felony child endangerment on Dec. 7, 1992, when police discovered a 1 1/2-day-old girl--still uncleaned following her birth--left in a tangle of bloody sheets in Anderson’s bed when Anderson went to work. Paramedics cleared the newborn’s lungs and gave her oxygen. The child was taken to a local hospital and Anderson’s 11-year-old son was placed with relatives.

But the district attorney’s office did not file charges because of insufficient evidence, according to the prosecutor handling the current case.

“The case was rejected for insufficient evidence,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent, who was not involved in the 1992 case and said he was still unfamiliar with the details. “That raises all kinds of questions and I don’t have any answers.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles Middleton, who heads the agency’s child-abuse unit, said he was unfamiliar with the 1992 case. Middleton, who was not in the office Monday, said he would review the matter when he returned to work today.

Late Monday, authorities were still seeking to answer many questions about Anderson’s past--a task made more difficult because the detective who investigated the 1992 incident is now retired and was not immediately available.

A year earlier in 1991, Anderson gave birth at home in Fullerton to a child and was taken by her boyfriend to Martin Luther Hospital in Anaheim, Fullerton Police Lt. Jeff Roop said. At the hospital, Anderson, saying she did not want to keep the child, relinquished it to officials from the county’s Social Services Agency for adoption, Roop said. Roop said the police were not notified of that birth and there was no allegation of any wrongdoing.

It could not be determined Monday where Anderson’s children are living, or who fathered them. Agency officials were searching records to determine whether the three children are in foster care or have been adopted.

The evolving portrait of Anderson as a repeat but reluctant mother came as disturbing news to experts.

“This would certainly be considered unusual behavior of a woman who’s just given birth,” said Sylvia Wall, director of the children’s services division of the county Social Services Agency. “The article in the newspaper would lead one to believe that she just has the child and walks off. That’s very strange behavior.”

Wall said she did not know yet where Anderson’s children were placed.

Anderson was booked into Orange County Jail on Saturday after her mother discovered a newborn infant in the trunk of Anderson’s car Friday night, according to police. Anderson’s stepfather called Fire Department paramedics, but the baby was dead when they arrived.

Authorities said the child appeared to have been born alive. But the cause of death had not been determined Monday, pending results of toxicology tests by the Orange County coroner.

Police said Anderson was bedeviled by a drinking problem and had strained relations with her mother, with whom she had not spoken in weeks. Her mother, Peggy Anderson, was looking for liquor in the trunk when she found the infant, police said.

Relatives declined to comment on the case Monday.