Tommy Pope, the prosecutor in the 1994 Susan Smith case, asserts that “foul play” is likely involved in the disappearance of 7-month-old California baby Emmanuel Haro.
Smith was a South Carolina mother sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994 for murdering her 3-year-old son, Michael, and 14-month-old son, Alex. She confessed to strapping her sons into car seats and driving to a boat ramp at a South Carolina lake, subsequently allowing the vehicle to submerge with her children still inside.
Authorities are continuing to search for 7-month-old Emmanuel, reported missing on August 14. His mother, Rebecca, informed police that he was abducted from the parking lot of a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Yucaipa by an unidentified individual who reportedly rendered her unconscious during a diaper change.
“I think, first of all, that things are not adding up,” Pope told “Banfield.”
Pope remarked, “Carjackers want cars. Carjackers want money. They may even want a sexual assault. They don’t take babies. So, you know, nine times out of 10, there’s got to be some connection with the family.”
He speculated, “If he assaulted her, as she claims, and when she regained consciousness the baby was missing, it seems logical to me her purse would be gone. Her car with money would be gone…”
Investigators state Rebecca Haro has refused further interviews after they pointed out inconsistencies in her account of Emmanuel’s disappearance, leading detectives to remain unable to dismiss the possibility of foul play.
“I’m sure law enforcement is following what the family has given them, but also following the obvious, which unfortunately looks like foul play on the part of the family,” Pope said.
The fomer attorney of Emmanuel’s father, Jake Haro, told that Rebecca Haro, whom he is not representing, agreed to a lie detector test if her lawyer could be present and that both parties could not agree on terms. Jake Haro’s attorney has gone into hiding, fearing for his own life amid death threats.
“Most parents will tell you, ‘If my child’s missing, law enforcement can take, do, ask polygraph, whatever they need of me and my spouse, to find my child, and it doesn’t feel like that’s where they’re at,” Pope added.
Jake Haro pleaded guilty to willful child cruelty after Promise Faith, his daughter with another woman, was admitted to a hospital with broken bones in 2018, according to the Orange County Register.
Faith was badly injured at 10 weeks old, to the point of no longer being able to see, talk or walk, according to journalist Abby Escobar.
