Woman Arrested as Murder Suspect in Baby Son’s Death

A 23-year-old Anaheim woman was arrested on suspicion of murder Wednesday in the death of her 6-week-old son after a body was found in a trash container in Fullerton, Anaheim police said.

Sheryl Lynn Massip was arrested hours after she reported that her son, Michael Alfredo Massip, had been torn from her arms as she was walking with him in a schoolyard, Anaheim Police Sgt. John Haradon said.

Massip called police from her home in the 1900 block of East Sycamore Street at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday to report that her son had been abducted.

Body Found in Fullerton

Less than two hours later, Fullerton police told Anaheim police that the body of a male infant had been found behind a home in the 300 block of North Marwood Avenue in Fullerton.

“Based on the interviews with both parents and investigation at the crime scene, we determined that a kidnaping had not occurred and in fact a homicide had,” Haradon said. Massip “was alone at the time of the alleged kidnaping, and we were unable to locate information or witnesses to support her kidnaping story.”

The infant found in Fullerton was tentatively identified as Michael; an autopsy was scheduled for this morning, Haradon said. The cause and time of death had not been determined by Wednesday night. Haradon would not say whether any marks were found on the body.

Neighbors in Massip’s apartment building said they saw her run into the complex Wednesday morning shouting, “Someone’s stolen my baby!”

Neighbor Lauri Jonsson, 30, said Massip told her that she had been accosted by a black woman with bleached red hair and a big black purse that contained a gun. Massip said the woman told her to hand over the baby or she would kill her and the baby, Jonsson said.

Massip said “they struggled and the black woman just grabbed the baby,” Jonsson said.

Jonsson described Massip and her husband, Alfredo Massip, 29, as “very nice people. They were all excited about having the baby.”

Alfredo Massip owns an Anaheim maintenance business, and Sheryl Massip was a hairdresser before Michael’s birth, said Randi Gilbert, who manages the apartment building where the Massips live.

Gilbert said Massip told her that she had not seen the assailant’s gun but that “she was threatened with it. It was in the purse.”

Massip told Gilbert that when the baby was taken, she ran after the kidnaper and fell in the schoolyard. “Her arm was all scratched up,” Gilbert said. “I was holding her up. She was ready to collapse.”

Gilbert said the Massips moved into the apartment building last June, after they were married.

Massip, who was arrested on her 23rd birthday, is being held in Anaheim city jail on $250,000 bail, Haradon said. An investigation is continuing, he said.