AWOL Soldier Suspected Of Kidnapping Daughter
A mom is pleading for her missing daughter to be returned to her. She said the baby?s father, a Fort Carson soldier gone AWOL, kidnapped the infant.
Six-week-old Brooke Hembree has been missing for nearly two weeks. She is believed to be with her father, Derik Hembree.
The state has has custody of Brooke since she was born, but she was living with her father.
?I got a phone call from the DHS caseworker,? said Nicole Brewer, Brooke’s mom. ?She asked me to sit down. She told me that they went to go do a wellness check.”
According to Brewer the caseworker found a note on Hembree’s door on Aug. 3. Brewer said the caseworker would not show her the note, but said that Hembree had disappeared with the infant.
?Fort Carson knew that he was AWOL,? said Brewer. ?I contacted the NCO (non-commissioned officer) that actually reported him AWOL, so they had a chance to pick him up,? said Brewer. ?Renee (Department of Human Services caseworker) had a chance to not do this, to avoid all of this, and she didn’t. I basically blame her for putting my daughter in danger.?
Brewer said Hembree is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
?One of the triggers to his PTSD is a child screaming,? said Brewer. ?So if that baby screams too loud he’s going to flip out, and I?m just terrified, and he knows how much I love this baby, and for him to just up and snatch her and just take off without thinking anything. It?s terrifying me.?
Brewer said Hembree told her the reason for the trigger. “He’s seen, when he was in Iraq or Afghanistan, a kid burning to death.”
Brewer said the situation has been a nightmare since she delivered her daughter prematurely on July 2. She said Hembree and his girlfriend locked her in their basement while she was giving birth.
?I finally started banging on the door again and telling her let me out,? said Brewer. Brewer said she dialed 911 and delivered the baby on the floor. Brewer said the ambulance arrived minutes after she was let out of the basement.
Jennifer Fullerton-Brown, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Springs Department of Human Services would not discuss the case. However, she did explain that when the state has custody of a child, the child may be placed with the next of kin. She said the department looks to family members first before placing a child in foster care. Brown said sometimes safety plans are put in place to get a parent on the path to obtaining full custody of their child.
Brewer has four children, ages 12, 9, 4 and 6 weeks. The 29-year old admitted that she did not have custody of three of them. She said that she has joint custody of her 4-year-old, who lives in Arizona.
