ATTLEBORO -- Fearing for the well-being of an infant it has yet to lay eyes on, the state Department of Social Services will today ask the courts to take custody of a baby presumed born to a member of a radical Christian sect recently.
According to DSS Public Affairs Director Carol Yelverton, the state agency believes Rebecca Corneau, a member of a religious sect based in Attleboro and known only as "The Body," recently gave birth to a child, though searches of Corneau's home produced no evidence of a baby. Members of "The Body" reportedly eschew modern medicine and do not recognize governmental authority. Bristol County Attorney General Paul Walsh has charged that members adhering to sect doctrine starved at least one child to death. "What we're trying to do now is locate this baby," Yelverton said Monday. "We're hoping that this baby is alive and well." Corneau and her husband David are due to appear before District Juvenile Court Justice Kenneth Nasif today for a custody hearing. The hearing will be held in the Attleboro District Courthouse. Edward Sirois, spokesman for the Bristol County attorney general, said investigators hope to discover the whereabouts of the infant during today's hearing. "I can't say what the judge might ask, but I assume that would be part of it," he said. Corneau, 33, a mother of five counting this most recent birth, lost custody of her three surviving children after questions about the death of her third child, Jeremiah, were raised by state officials in December 2000. According to a hand-written journal reportedly kept by a fellow sect member, Jeremiah was stillborn without explanation and his 10-month old cousin, Samuel Robidoux, the son of sect leader Jacques Robidoux and his wife Karen, was allowed to starve to death on the strength of a "body" member's belief it was God's will the baby be denied food. Both babies were secretly buried in a Maine state park in 1999. Jacques and Karen Robidoux will face murder charges stemming from their son's death. Their trial is due to start in March. Corneau has not been charged with a crime, but was found unfit to be a parent by state Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth Nasif in 2000. In September 2000, Corneau was ordered held in a secure facility during the birth of her fourth child, a healthy girl, and the baby was immediately placed with a foster family. Social Services officials became concerned when Corneau was seen looking to be in the late stages of pregnancy weeks ago and, more recently, appeared to have given birth. On Friday, based on evidence presented by DSS, Nasif granted the state temporary custody of the as-yet-unseen child