WEEKEND #10, 2007
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
SOURCE: MULTIPLE "REMAINS" FOUND IN OCEAN CITY INVESTIGATION
Several city, state and federal agencies spent the weekend protecting and searching for more evidence at an Ocean City crime scene. This comes after 37-year-old Christy Freeman was charged with murder on Friday after her deceased newborn was discovered in her apartment on Sunset Drive.
It all started when Ocean City EMS workers responded to Freeman's residence around 1 a.m. Thursday. The dispatcher told the paramedics that the call was for an unconscious 36-year-old woman who lost a lot of blood. The dispatcher said she possibly suffered a tubular pregnancy, as she has had a previous history of such pregnancies.
This is the actual radio conversation between the dispatcher and EMS personnel responding early Thursday morning. A paramedic unit took Freeman to Atlantic General Hospital around 1:30 a.m.
Freeman was later transferred to Peninsula Regional Medical Center. That's where medical personnel discovered several hours later that she had been pregnant but the child was missing.
After interviewing Freeman, officers served a search and seizure warrant at her Ocean City residence on the upper floor of 209 Sunset Drive (below). That's where police say they discovered a deceased infant wrapped in a blanket. An Ocean City police news release says the remains were taken to the medical examiner's office in Baltimore.
In addition to the newborn, says one source, the medical examiner had recovered three more sets of remains last week, and investigators have been searching for a fourth this weekend.
PFC Barry Neeb, Ocean City police spokesman, told a WUSA-TV reporter Sunday that more information would be forthcoming on Monday, but he could not provide additional information at this point in the investigation regarding what evidence has been recovered.
Neeb did say that digging would start Monday morning. A front-end loader and other equipment arrived at the residence Sunday evening, and police continue to guard the scene.
Photos by Christopher Casale, Breaking News Network
Police released this photograph Friday taken of Christy Freeman. It was dated April 2006.
PFC Barry Neeb issued these three press releases so far concerning this case:
REHOBOTH POLICE RAID DOWNTOWN MERCHANT
Rehoboth Beach police executed a search warrant at the S&S Bargain Attic in the ocean block of Rehoboth Avenue on Thursday. Sgt. Mike Corbin and his officers searched the shop, which is above the Cold Stone Creamery, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
According to a police news release distributed by the Rehoboth Beach Neighborhood Watch, all of the store's inventory was seized including business records and an undisclosed amount of cash. A preliminary estimate of the counterfeit merchandise seized is valued between $75,000 and $80,000.
One of the managers of this business sold counterfeit goods to an off-duty Rehoboth Beach police officer, the news release claims. During that time the manager told the officer that the store was selling "knock off" items and hoped that the city did not "come down" on them for that.
The shop was allegedly selling counterfeit purses, handbags, wallets, sunglasses and jewelry. Items for sale were sold under brand names such as Gucci, Coach, Prada, Louis Voitton and Tiffany & Co.
The city said it revoked the business license for S&S Bargain Attic. The news release states that the store or its owners are no longer able to operate a business within the city.
The shop remained closed all weekend, with the letter from the Rehoboth Beach city manager posted inside the door.
MORE REHOBOTH'S MOST-WANTED NABBED!
It's been another good week for the city's Parking Meter Department which has captured several vehicles with unpaid parking tickets.
A Rehoboth Beach parking enforcer caught one of the bigger fish on Thursday afternoon. He found this Ford Focus parked at an expired meter in the ocean block of Wilmington Avenue around 2:20 p.m.
Including the ticket issued on Thursday, the owner owed $470 plus towing and storage fees. It had Pennsylvania tags and a Rehoboth Beach parking decal in the windshield (which does not apply to metered parking spaces).
Blue Hen Towing removed it to the city's impound.
An hour later, another ticket writer found a Jeep in the ocean block of Olive Avenue, which was also parked at an expired meter. The Jeep owed $245 in unpaid fines, including the ticket issued prior to it being towed on Thursday.
On Sunday afternoon, Coastal Towing was called to remove a Ford Excursion, also from the ocean block of Wilmington Avenue. It owed the city $210. The owner showed up when the tow truck arrived, and was given 20 minutes to pay the bill.
The last vehicle captured this weekend by parking enforcement personnel was found around 4:55 p.m. Sunday in the ocean block of Baltimore Avenue. An Acura with Delaware tags owed $225 in fines. It was removed by Blue Hen Towing.
TOWEES CONFRONT TOWING COMPANY TWICE ON HICKMAN ST
Twice this past week, beach goers had heated exchanges with Coastal Towing operators attempting to remove their vehicles from parking spaces reserved for lifeguards on Hickman Street.
When the man in the plaid shirt came off the beach Saturday afternoon, he ran to his vehicle with change in hand, as if he were being towed for being parked at an expired meter (he had 12 minutes remaining when the tow truck arrived).
Coastal Towing had already hooked and lifted his Impala's wheels off the street, and the worker demanded his full fee. First he said it was $125, but after radioing his office, changed the amount due to $160. He said he got confused with the rates they charge in Dewey Beach. The man did not have enough cash on hand. So Coastal Towing removed his Impala at 2:05 p.m.
He said he didn't see the LIFEGUARD PARKING ONLY sign mounted on the parking meter post, and even speculated that it was erected simply to get money out of him. This is the closest parking space to the boardwalk on Hickman Street, and the sign is not always visible when it is obscured by the vehicle in the adjacent space.
On Wednesday, another heated exchange took place at these same reserved parking spaces. When the two men (shown below) came from the beach, they found the police had issued them a ticket, and Coastal Towing was about to remove their Ford F250 pick-up truck.
The truck had been parked in the other lifeguard parking space on Hickman Street. The men said they saw the sign mounted on the parking meter, but thought it applied to the east-most space, since the sign had been turned toward the boardwalk. The man holding the ticket is on the phone with the city complaining about the sign and how to contest his ticket. He paid a show-up fee to Coastal Towing.
Two other unauthorized vehicles were towed from lifeguard parking spaces this week. Coastal Towing removed a Pontiac Bonneville from Brooklyn Avenue on Thursday afternoon. It had more than an hour remaining in the parking meter.
A man who was fined for parking in this spot last summer said he assumed the sign applied to the east-most space since the sign appears over the right side of the line, and the curb to the right had been painted yellow at one time.
The fourth lunch-time tow from a lifeguard spot this past week took place on Stockley Street (below) on Tuesday afternoon. That's where Coastal Towing removed this Ford Windstar with Pennsylvania tags.
This space had the most tows of unauthorized vehicles parked in lifeguard spots during the 2006 season. The sign marking the pair of reserved spaces is several inches to the right of the line dividing the spaces, but closer than it was last season. The van had a Rehoboth Beach parking permit hanging from the rearview mirror.
TREE LIMB FALLS AFTER STORM
A Rehoboth Beach police officer on patrol reported this tree limb down in front of 334 Hickman Street in the Country Club Estates area around 5:30 p.m. He called for the city maintenance crew to help remove it. A thunderstorm rolled through the Rehoboth area around 1:45 p.m.
REHOBOTH'S LAKE GERAR PRIOR TO DUSK
