Baby Dumped, Doting Mother Disappeared
Illawarra Mercury
Friday November 21, 2003
THE mother of a baby found in a stroller on a Sydney street in the dead of night is missing, and may have vanished two days ago, police said yesterday.
Two young women driving in Sydney's northern beaches saw the one-year-old girl unattended in her stroller on the footpath in Darley Rd near Manly Hospital about 11.45pm on Wednesday.
NSW Police said the father of the baby telephoned police about 8am yesterday after hearing news bulletins about an abandoned baby and asked for a better description of the child.
Neither the man nor girl's mother, Zoey Zou, 33, whose disappearance was being treated as suspicious, had any ties or connection with Manly.
Detective Inspector Luke Freudenstein said investigators had not determined how the baby, whose name has not been released, ended up in Manly or what had happened to her mother.
``We believe Zoey has not been seen for several days," Insp Freudenstein said yesterday.
The child's father had told police he had not been in contact with Zoey, who lives in Haymarket in Chinatown, since Tuesday as he had been out of Sydney on holidays.
At this stage police said they were covering every possible line of inquiry including kidnapping, murder, extortion, self-harm, post-natal depression, or that she had disappeared of her own volition.
However, Insp Freudenstein said Zoey - also known as Lixue Zou - was a doting mother who took great care of her child.
``It is out of character for Zoey to disappear particularly under the circumstances which saw her daughter located on a Manly roadside just before midnight," Insp Freudenstein said.
The young women who found the baby took her to Manly Hospital where she was assessed as in good health.
© 2003 Illawarra Mercury
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