Saturday, February 06, 1999
Woman accused of baby-stealing try
Police say expectant mom victimized
BY JANICE MORSE and SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sheila Kay Kautz
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HAMILTON — Sheila Kay Kautz wanted a baby badly. She incessantly talked about them to co-workers at The Cooker Bar & Grille in Springdale. Often she'd elbow her way to tables where young children sat with parents.
Then, three weeks ago, the 35-year-old Forest Park waitress and mother of four children giddily shared some happy news with co-workers: She had found a baby to adopt. Ms. Kautz even posted a flier on the restaurant's kitchen bulletin board to announce a baby shower.
But instead of celebrating the planned adoption, Ms. Kautz was in jail Friday.
Police arrested her Thursday and charged her with impersonating a human services worker, in what they say was ruse to persuade a frightened 18-year-old Hamilton woman to surrender her unborn baby.
“We don't know what she intended to do with the baby ... and I wasn't willing to go along with the charade long enough to find out,” said Hamilton Police Detective Dave Weissinger. He posed as the expectant mother's husband during a meeting that led to Ms. Kautz's arrest.
Ms. Kautz's alleged actions have caused terrible stress for the expectant mother, who has already been enduring a difficult pregnancy, Mr. Weissinger said. He requested that the pregnant woman, who is about a week away from delivery, not be identified.
It all started within the past month.
The expectant mother received a phone call from a woman — who police say was Ms. Kautz — who claimed to be a social worker investigating the baby's potential living environment, Detective Weissinger said.
Ms. Kautz alleged the ba by's father may have been using drugs — a false claim that caused a rift in the young couple's relationship, Mr. Weissinger said.
Police think Ms. Kautz learned about the expectant mother through a mutual acquaintance, a woman who had worked with Ms. Kautz at a Hamilton restaurant.
Ms. Kautz contacted the expectant mother a few more times, police say. “She conducted herself just like a social worker conducting an investigation,” Mr. Weissinger said.
But something about the situation didn't seem right to the pregnant woman's older sister. She called the Butler County Children Services Board, where employees said they had never heard of a social worker with the name Ms. Kautz gave.
So the sister went to police Thursday afternoon.
Seven hours later, Ms. Kautz was in custody.
“It just sort of fell into place. I really can't take much of the credit,” Detective Weissinger said.
He said the pregnant woman's sister came up with the idea to set up a “home visit” with Ms. Kautz.
Reluctantly, Ms. Kautz showed up at the expectant mother's house in Hamilton — wearing baggy sweat pants, a pullover shirt and a blue jean jacket. She apologized for her sloppy appearance, then began asking questions and taking notes on a legal pad inside a professional-looking black portfolio.
As the expectant mother and her sister joined in the conversation, Detective Weissinger said he pretended to be a banker and played dumb, eliciting much information from Ms. Kautz.
“After about an hour, I had heard enough,” he said. “I stood up and identified myself as a Hamilton police detective — and her eyes got a little large.”
Ms. Kautz protested and said she was only trying to help, but Detective Weissinger soon had her in handcuffs and was leading her away.
Detective Weissinger said Ms. Kautz asserts she had never done anything like this before. But authorities will investigate to see whether she had any similar contacts with other expectant mothers, he said.
On Friday, a teen-age girl answered the door at Ms. Kautz's Forest Park home and identified herself as Ms. Kautz's daughter. She denied any knowledge of the attempted adoption, and said she didn't want to talk to a reporter.
Ms. Kautz's co-workers at the Cooker restaurant said they didn't know about her arrest until a reporter told them — but everyone there knew about her attempted adoption.
“She said she met a younger girl who wasn't interested in keeping her baby, that (the girl) was looking for someone to take care of it,” said Amy Sylvester, a hostess at the restaurant for five years.
She said Ms. Kautz, a part-time waitress there for one year, had posted the baby shower announcement but someone had removed it by Friday.
Ms. Sylvester said she didn't know the date of the shower or when the baby was expected to be born.
Ms. Kautz's co-workers said she talked about children all the time. Their theory is she wanted to adopt an infant because her children are older. She simply wanted to be around a baby again, they said.
“She liked kids a lot,” Ms. Sylvester said.
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