=?x-unknown?q?12444=3A__Haitian's_=5BISO-8859-1=5D_fianc=E9e_mu?==?x-unknown?q?rdered_and_baby_son__kidnapped_=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By SABRA AYRES

   MIAMI, June 30 (AP) -- The woman with the open umbrella surprised Myrtho
Jean-Louis with kindness as she helped his fiancee and 6-month-old son
through the rain and into the hospital clinic for the boy's checkup.
   Several hours later, the same woman, looking disheveled and grim,
appeared on television as she stood before a judge, accused of shooting
Jean-Louis' fiancee and kidnapping his son.
   "She came out of nowhere," Jean-Louis said. "After I left Ronnie at the
hospital, she must have followed her and gotten buddy-buddy with her."
   Ronnie Holton died Saturday, three days after she was found on the side
of a road with a gunshot wound to her head. The baby was found unharmed in
a Fort Myers apartment, about 120 miles away.
   Police said Jennifer Irene Graves befriended Holton at the hospital and
ultimately killed her because she wanted a child of her own.
   "We're totally devastated by this," Graves' adoptive father, William
Graves, said.
   In the months before her arrest, Graves went to extremes to lie to her
boyfriend and parents about being pregnant and having a baby, according to
her stepfather.
   Graves moved to Fort Myers about four years ago with Eli Williams, whom
she met while taking classes at a community college in New York City,
William Graves said.
   In September, Graves called her mother, Greta, and stepfather in New
York to say she was three months pregnant. She sent a handmade card with a
sonogram image in January.
   Graves called weeks later to say she had given birth to a boy; she
promised to send pictures, but never did, William Graves said. They began
to believe the baby didn't exist, he said.
   Last week, their daughter's boyfriend called. Williams had never seen
the child either and thought the baby had been staying with them in New
York, William Graves said.
   Graves' parents took the sonogram out of its handmade frame and noticed
the date on the bottom: 1980.
   "I don't know what the proper psychological term is, but she concocted
this whole phantom baby thing," William Graves said. Williams did not
return repeated phone calls for comment.
   Jennifer Graves went to the pediatric clinic at Miami's Jackson Memorial
Hospital on Wednesday, apparently hunting for a child to take home, police
spokesman Lt. Bill Schwartz said.
   "It has the feel that Graves was on the hunt, trolling for a child,"
Schwartz said.
   Graves was carrying Jeremiah when she returned to Fort Myers, police
said. She told neighbors she had given birth to the boy two months ago,
police said.
   Williams called police after Graves allegedly confessed to shooting
Holton. She has been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping and is
jailed in Lee County pending transfer to Miami.
   Jean-Louis lamented his son will not grow up with the love of his
mother, whom he described as a kind, caring woman.
   "Ronnie was the type of person that when you met her, you can't forget
because she gave her all and held nothing back," he said.