Authorities say the baby's mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer, gave her to babysitter Susan Elizabeth Baker early Saturday, then reported her missing about 10 hours later.

Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock choked up yesterday as he described how 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick was stashed in the box for 12 straight hours before investigators discovered her late Wednesday. Baker had written a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist's office in August, pleading for help for the baby and claiming her parents did drugs in front of her.

Haddock said Shannon apparently had been fed and cared for while she was with Baker, who lived about 12 miles from Mercer. Mercer was charged with interference of child custody and desertion of a child. Charges against Baker included neglect of a child with aggravated circumstances and interference of child custody.

Mercer's mother, Candis Boyer, attended yesterday's news conference and said afterward that she was there to show support for her daughter and granddaughter.

Baker's husband, James Arthur Baker, was arrested but released. He is still under investigation, Haddock said.

Shannon's parents told investigators they last saw her when they went to bed around 3 a.m. Saturday and about 100 law enforcement agents spent days scouring dense vines and marshes around the baby's home in a remote, makeshift community of dirt roads, tin-roof shacks and old mobile homes.

According to court documents, child welfare officials frequently went to the infant's home and reported that both parents used marijuana and kept a messy home. But they said Shannon seemed to be cared for and in September, a physician determined she was healthy.

Susan Baker was involved in another missing child case in South Carolina more than two decades ago. She told authorities her stepson, 3-year-old Paul Leonard Baker, disappeared from the family's Beaufort, S.C., home on March 5, 1987, while she napped.

A massive manhunt turned up nothing. She and her husband, James Baker, were extradited to South Carolina in 2000 and charged with assault and battery in Paul's disappearance, according to police reports provided by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. But a grand jury never indicted them and the child was never found.