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Dayton custody dispute gets national attention

‘Don’t take my child,’ California mother begs

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By Mary McCarty, Staff Writer Updated 1:56 AM Sunday, July 4, 2010

As a Dayton child-custody case garners more and more media attention, it raises the question: Will Baby Vanessa become the next Baby Jessica?

Jessica DeBoer was the 2-year-old daughter of an Ann Arbor, Mich., couple who made international news when she was returned to her birth parents in August, 1993.

Vanessa Doss is the 2-year-old daughter of an Orange County, Calif., single mother who wants to adopt her but is being challenged for custody by a birth father from Dayton with a criminal record.

Both cases raise the wrenching question, “How do you balance birth parents’ rights with the best interests of the child?”

To the average person, the situation facing Stacey Doss seems all but unthinkable: Vanessa may be placed in temporary foster care in Montgomery County until the custody dispute is settled in the courts.

The 45-year-old single mother has been ordered to return Vanessa to Montgomery County by July 16 in anticipation of a custody trial set for late July in Montgomery County Juvenile Court.

“I can’t imagine my life without Vanessa,” Doss said. “She is my daughter, and I am her mom.”

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