‘Baby For Sale’ Story Sparks Coverage From Media Outlets
Ronald Douthet, a photojournalist with WPTY-TV of Memphis, shoots video of Water Valley to use as inserts in their story.
Reporter
ENID – The convoluted tale of an alleged attempt to sell a baby has brought television reporters swooping down upon Yalobusha County.
Memphis TV stations WREG, WMC, WPTY and others have carried reports of the incident and details vary depending on which station you watch. If you don’t like one version, flip the channel and get another.
The story is also getting wide play on the Internet as various news sites and blogs pick it up.
The investigation began when Bob Best of Enid Lake Bait and Tackle reported the incident to the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Department on Monday, Aug. 11. Best told authorities that Tracy Moore had made a comment about selling a two-week-old baby for $2000 and a used car, according to Sheriff Lance Humphreys.
Moore, aka Tracy Cook and Tracy Martin, was renting property located at 55186 Highway 51 from Best’s wife, Paula.
Last Thursday the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation joined in sending an undercover buyer to talk with Moore. However, she had apparently changed her mind, the sheriff said.
Moore was taken into custody and held at the Panola County Jail. As investigators began to unravel the tale, they discovered that the elder Moore was actually the child’s grandmother even though her name was on the birth certificate.
The grandmother was charged with child endangerment because the child was malnourished, Sheriff Humphreys said.
The child’s birth mother, Brandy Moore, was held briefly, but was released from jail and began to give television interviews on Friday. She told reporters that she was angry with her mother and hoped she stayed in jail. She claimed to know nothing about her mother’s attempts to sell the baby.
In the meantime, authorities discovered that Brandy Moore was wanted on a probation violation warrant and is now in custody of Alabama authorities.
The baby is reported to be safe after the Mississippi Department of Human Services has placed it in foster care.
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Here’s a link to one website featuring the incident:
http://www.theweeklyvice.com/2008/08/tracy-martin-grandmother-accused-of.html
