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() Tommy Pope, the prosecutor in the 1994 Susan Smith case, believes “foul play” is the likely reason behind the disappearance of 7-month-old California baby Emmanuel Haro.
Smith was a South Carolina mother who was sentenced to life in prison in 1994 for the murder of her 3-year-old son, Michael, and 14-month-old Alex. She admitted to strapping her two sons into car seats and driving onto a boat ramp at a South Carolina lake, where she let the vehicle roll into the water with her sons still in the back seats.
Police are still looking for 7-month-old Emmanuel, who was reported missing Aug. 14. His mother, Rebecca, told police he was taken from the parking lot of a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Yucaipa by a stranger who knocked her unconscious as she was changing his diaper.
“I think, first of all, that things are not adding up,” Pope told “Banfield.”
“Carjackers want cars. Carjackers want money. They may even want a sexual assault. They don’t take babies. So, you know, nine times out of 10, there’s got to be some connection with the family.
“If he assaulted her, like she said, and when she came to the baby was gone, it seems to me, her purse would be gone. Her car with money would be gone…”
Police say Rebecca Haro, Emmanuel’s mother, declined to be interviewed further when they questioned inconsistencies in the story about Emmanuel’s disappearance, and that detectives haven’t been able to rule out foul play.
“I’m sure law enforcement is following what the family has given them, but also following the obvious, which unfortunately looks like foul play on the part of the family,” Pope said.
The fomer attorney of Emmanuel’s father, Jake Haro, told that Rebecca Haro, whom he is not representing, agreed to a lie detector test if her lawyer could be present and that both parties could not agree on terms. Jake Haro’s attorney has gone into hiding, fearing for his own life amid death threats.
“Most parents will tell you, ‘If my child’s missing, law enforcement can take, do, ask polygraph, whatever they need of me and my spouse, to find my child, and it doesn’t feel like that’s where they’re at,” Pope added.
Jake Haro pleaded guilty to willful child cruelty after Promise Faith, his daughter with another woman, was admitted to a hospital with broken bones in 2018, according to the Orange County Register.
Faith was badly injured at 10 weeks old, to the point of no longer being able to see, talk or walk, according to journalist Abby Escobar.