Woman Accused of Giving Child Away Over Internet

A California woman is charged with giving away her 10-year-old child over the Internet nearly three months ago.

The woman arranged to give her son to a total stranger, a Florida man she knew only by his first name, Gus, Vacaville Police Det. Patrick Cowan said.

The boy was found apparently unharmed and will be returned to California authorities, Cowan said.

The child’s mother, Helen Chase, 29, of Elmira, posted $1,000 bail on charges of child endangerment, child abandonment and failure to provide for a child. No hearing date has been set.

There was no home telephone number or attorney listed for Chase, and she could not be reached for comment.

“She told us basically, yeah, she was having trouble with her 10-year-old--problems at school, that sort of thing--really typical 10-year-old stuff,” Cowan said. “She just decided she couldn’t deal with this kid and wanted to adopt him out--which is kind of unusual in the first place.”

Chase told police she attempted to place the boy for adoption in December after he had what Cowan described as minor disciplinary problems. However, Cowan said police can find no record of any adoption official talking with her.

In January, she began searching computer chat rooms and came in contact with Gustaf Sjoberg of St. Petersburg, Fla., who wanted to adopt a 7-year-old boy, Cowan said.

Chase told her son she was planning to send him away, and the boy’s behavior temporarily improved, Cowan said.

In February, however, she could no longer deal with her son and arranged for Sjoberg to come get him, she told police. He flew to California April 20 and left with the boy hours later.

Chase moved to Elmira, 11 miles east of Vacaville and about 30 miles southwest of Sacramento, telling school officials her son was moving with her, Cowan said. He said police were alerted Friday by a stepson who told them “his stepmother had given away his stepbrother.”

St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, Fla., officers picked the boy up about 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

Sjoberg and his wife, Deborah, were cooperative but upset when the boy was taken, said St. Petersburg Police spokesman Dan Bates, quoting a police report: “They said they were seeing how [the boy] did living with them before they started the adoption process.”

The Sjobergs did not immediately return a telephone message left at their home.

They have four other adopted children in addition to a child born to Gustaf Sjoberg, Cowan said.

The other children were legally adopted in New Jersey, said Marianne Pasha, spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department. Child services workers found that conditions at the home were “crowded but not objectionable,” and no charges are pending against the Sjobergs, all three police spokesmen said.

The boy is in a Florida foster home awaiting a judge’s order returning him to California later this week. He probably will be placed in a foster home here, said Cowan, although child services workers are attempting to reach his father, who is in a state prison.

The child “wants to come home,” Cowan said. “He does want to be with his mom. It’s pretty amazing what kids can go through and still want to be with a parent.”