Three Pregnancies, Four Deaths: Clues About Utah Mother's Motives Died With Her
Salt Lake Tribune 13Dec99 P2
By Michael Vigh: Salt Lake Tribune

AMERICAN FORK, UTAH -- The chilling story of Darcie Jo Baum has left both her family and investigators confused and seeking her motive for giving birth four times, and abandoning to die three of the infants before bleeding to death following the birth of the fourth. Baum was, by all accounts, a good mother to her surviving son, Draye, and a person who enjoyed infants and children in general.

Investigators recently discovered that Baum first gave birth in 1992 to a child found decomposed in the Provo, River by a fisherman. The abandoned child was buried by Police who took up a collection for the burial, placing a headstone on the grave that read, "Abandoned by Mother, But Not By Us."

She then gave birth to Draye in 1995. She shared custody of Draye with his father in an amicable arrangement. Then in 1998 a jogger discovered another dead infant, that under questioning from police Baum admitted to abandoning. She was arrested and awaiting trial when she became pregnant a fourth time, but managed to again hide the pregnancy from everyone.

This time she gave birth in a bathroom over a toilet where her infant son drowned immediately after birth. She then crawled out of the bathroom into a hallway, collapsed and bled to death.

Baum's mother, Vickie, is distraught and confused trying to understand her daughter's motives. "We've racked our brains and grasped at straws, searching for something in her life that would give us a clue as to why this happened. We can't come up with anything."

And even Orem police Sgt. Gary Downey, who interviewed several of Baum's family and friends, is also at a loss. "There was nothing anybody could explain. It would be nice to be able to ask her, I'll tell you that."