ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PRINCE GEORGE
SOURCE: Associated Press
A motorist rescued a baby as she crawled into a street in Chesapeake on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the baby's mother was found strangled and police arrested her boyfriend.
By Thursday, police had not figured out the chain of events that placed the infant in peril on a dark road near a convenience store and her mother's body in woods near Petersburg, 50 miles to the northwest.
``The bizarre twist is, why was the baby found here?'' said Chesapeake Detective Richard Black.
Authorities suspect Jaliyuah's mother, Antitca Hurt, 20, was killed in Prince George County, where her body was found Wednesday near Interstate 95. She had been strangled with a belt, said Lt. R.W. Blystone of the Prince George County Sheriff's Office.
Hurt's boyfriend, Malcolm T. Ruffin, was charged in her slaying Wednesday night.
Family members told police that Hurt, who was nine months pregnant, left Petersburg on Monday with Ruffin. She had told relatives that they were going to Chesapeake to shop for baby clothes.
Investigators want to know if Antitca Hurt ever made it to Chesapeake and where she and Jaliyuah parted. Blystone said he believes Ruffin took Jaliyuah to Chesapeake and left her there.
Hurt's aunt, Beatrice Hyman of Richmond, said Wednesday before the body was found that her niece never would have left the baby unattended.
``It was awful,'' Hyman said. ``Just thinking about her [Jaliyuah] being out there by the side of the road even for a minute, is terrible.''
Hyman did not return a message left on her answering machine Thursday.
Ruffin, 31, who police said was the father of Hurt's unborn fetus, was held Thursday on $100,000 bond on a charge of first-degree murder. He faces a preliminary hearing Monday in Prince George County General District Court.
Police questioned Ruffin after Jaliyuah was found in Chesapeake, and he told them where they could find Hurt's body, Blystone said.
Jaliyuah has been placed in the custody of her father, who lives in Petersburg, Black said. The father asked that his name not be released.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. (headshot) Antitca Hurt. 2. Malcolm T. Ruffin,by CNBcharged with first-degree murder, is led by Prince George County
police Officer R.O. Castle. KEYWORDS: FATALITY