BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
The baby boy born in a Redwood City McDonald’s bathroom is living with an aunt and does not appear to have any disabilities despite being without a pulse when he was found face-down in a toilet.
Adrian’s mother, Sarah Lockner, 26, of Redwood City, has been charged with attempted murder and child abuse, both resulting in great bodily injury. She remains in the county jail.
Lockner, who gave birth to the child in September while working at the restaurant, is scheduled to appear in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City on Monday (April 16) for a preliminary hearing.
While the 7-month-old boy appears healthy it’s possible some disabilities may appear as the child grows, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said yesterday. Adrian is with his father’s aunt, according to the DA.
There are proceedings underway in family court to potentially reunite Lockner and her boyfriend with Adrian, Wagstaffe said.
“There have been discussions of whether (Lockner) would be able to be a mother again,” Wagstaffe said.
Lockner has another son, a 3-year-old who is still living with his father, Wagstaffe said. Lockner has claimed she did not know she was pregnant with either child, which is something both Wagstaffe and her public defender, Jonathan McDougall, have looked into.
Wagstaffe said McDougall has given his office “hundreds and hundreds” of pages relating to the public defender’s investigation into Lockner’s mental and physical state.
In September, Santa Clara University law Professor Michelle Oberman — who has studied the phenomena of mothers who did not know they were pregnant and either killed or attempted to kill their newborns — called the Lockner case “unusual” since the woman has had a child before.
Typically, Oberman said, the women are young, usually in their late teens or early 20s, and are not connected with the man who fathered their child. They believe that there are no resources available to them.
“There is something terrible going on in their minds, a disconnection from their body and marriage, and feeling a lack of control and to the point of not getting care,” Oberman told the Post.
McDougall previously told the Post that he was seeking a psychological diagnosis for Lockner.
“She’s a loving mother who cares for both of her children,” McDougall told the Post on Oct. 2.
The child was born Sept. 4 at the McDonald’s at 185 Chestnut St. Lockner told her co-workers she was having stomach pains and was spending quite a bit of time in the bathroom, according to Wagstaffe.
Lockner was told by her boss to go home if she was in pain, and around 10 p.m. she clocked out but stayed in the bathroom, Wagstaffe said.
One of Lockner’s co-workers checked on her and saw blood on the floor, Wagstaffe said. Lockner told the co-worker she was having a heavy menstrual cycle. But when a second co-worker went into the bathroom, she looked over the stall divider and saw a newborn child in the toilet, the DA said.
Lockner had the baby boy face-down in the toilet and was pressing him into the water, Wagstaffe said.
The co-worker told their boss and called police. The baby did not have a pulse when paramedics arrived, but was revived and was put into a coma at the hospital, Wagstaffe said. Lockner is in jail on $11 million bail and will be in court on Monday.
