Someone did love Stephanie Ledford's 8-month-old little boy, a couple who tried to protect the child even before he was born and now mourn his apparent murder.
The Good Samaritans didn't want to be identified, but the man told KRQE News 13 the child had a special place in his heart. He is very upset that the little life wasn't protected, he said Thursday night.
The man he saw Ledford and her boyfriend several days in a row asking for food.
“It just bothered us," he said. "We could tell she was pregnant, and we needed some help with the business.
"So we got them a place to live in return for the work I needed done."
The young family started to flourished, and within a few months the boyfriend was able to get a full-time job because of his hard work for the couple that befriended them.
The Samaritan couple stayed in touch sewing baby clothes and trying to give parenting tips to what they thought was a young inexperienced couple.
“Not knowing how to take care of a baby. Did I see any obvious neglect? No.”
The man said he knew the Children, Youth, and Families Department had taken the boy early on.
“What they told me is that they said she was an unfit mother," he said.
But the child was given back, and a few months later he was dead from what the young couple was said to be Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
“They weren't as emotional as I would have been," he said. "I wouldn't have been able to talk about it.
“They said that it was SIDS. I didn't know what to believe. I just didn't believe what they said."