Baby's father questions death

FLORENCE - Jerry Pigg's voice began to crack and tears rolled down his face as he read a portion of a letter he wrote to a daughter he will never hold or even see alive.

"I know you are in heaven with God, and you will see what life would have been like with me and your brother," Pigg said as he held the letter. "But you are in the best hands there is and don't be sad; we will all be together one day so just be good. Daddy and brother will be there soon and don't forget daddy will always love you regardless."

It was through tears that Pigg wrote those words Monday, three days after learning his unborn daughter had died. He said the letter has helped him to cope with the loss, but he still has questions about what led to her death and why the child's mother is now facing manslaughter charges.

"(Writing the letter) was the best way to express how I was feeling, and I cried like a baby," Pigg said.

It's a situation he prays he will never face again.

Pigg, a single father of a 3-year-old boy, received a telephone call Saturday morning informing him that his unborn baby girl had died as a result of a miscarriage.

If that weren't enough to deal with, another telephone call from his mother Monday afternoon brought more devastating news and left Pigg in tears.

That's when he learned that the unborn child's mother had been accused by police of killing the baby.

"I went from sad to mad," Pigg said. "I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was a call I wasn't expecting.

"That call liked to have killed me. I felt like the world was crashing in on me."

The telephone call from his mother came shortly after the baby's mother, 30-year-old Jennifer Darlene Johnson, Lauderdale 7, Florence, was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death.

Florence police say Johnson's baby was deceased at birth and doctors at Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield determined the umbilical cord had been severed, which caused the unborn child's death. Johnson was seven months pregnant at the time.

"She said her water broke sometime Friday morning and then she started experiencing pain and bleeding and was taken to Helen Keller Hospital Friday night," Florence police Capt. Ron Tyler said.

He said medical personnel at the hospital, during the course of delivering the baby, discovered the umbilical cord had been "severed while still inside the mother's uterus."

"Investigators believe the evidence demonstrates that the death of the infant is directly related to the intentional severing of the umbilical cord (by Johnson)," Tyler said.

Police say the umbilical cord was cut at a house in Cherry Hill Homes in Florence. They said a person who was described as a boyfriend drove Johnson to the hospital after recognizing something was wrong with her.

Police were notified Saturday morning after hospital personnel determined the umbilical cord had been cut.

Police said Johnson was released from the hospital Sunday and taken into custody by Florence police a short time later because she had not paid traffic tickets. After discussing the unborn baby's death with her and compiling other evidence, police charged her with manslaughter Monday.

Johnson remains in the Lauderdale County Detention center, with bail set at $50,000.

"None of this makes sense," Pigg said during an interview with the TimesDaily on Wednesday. "I never would have thought something like this could have happened. I've talked with her family and they're like me - just in shock."

Pigg said Johnson and he began dating last November and "things kind of ended around Easter."

He said he found out after the breakup that Johnson was pregnant with his child.

"I finally was able to get in touch with her around the first of June," Pigg said. "She told me she was pregnant, the child was mine and she wanted to know what I was going to do. I told her I was going to take care of the baby."

He said they soon started seeing each other again. He said they began talking about the child they were going to have together and about developing their relationship again.

Pigg said the last time he talked to Johnson, before finding out about the baby, was July 6, and "everything seemed OK, just like normal."

He added that he had unsuccessfully tried to contact her during the week.

Pigg said they finally talked Saturday morning around lunchtime and that's when she told him she had lost the baby.

Pigg said he went to the hospital but the baby had already been sent to Huntsville for an autopsy. He said he saw photos of his baby girl, however.

"She was so beautiful. She had brown hair with a red tint, just like my mother's. She looked like my mother," Pigg said as he strained to hold back tears while talking about the day. He said when he talked with Johnson at the hospital, she repeatedly apologized for what had happened, which now makes him suspicious.

"She kept saying how sorry she was," Pigg said. "I told her it would be all right and things like this happen. Now, I've found out what she was apologizing for."

Johnson's arrest and the circumstance that police say led them to make the arrest continue to baffle Pigg.

"We were both excited about having a baby, especially after we found out it was a girl. She wanted a girl as much as I did," Pigg said. "The thing I want to know is why. Only she knows, and I know she knows what she did was wrong, or she wouldn't have been telling me she was sorry (on Saturday)."

For now, Pigg is trying to cope with the death of his daughter. He said writing the letter was one way he was able to express his emotions.

"I thought about (the baby) all the way home Monday. After I got home, I sat down and wrote the letter," Pigg said as tears filled in his eyes.

"This has been a very sobering experience. It makes you realize just how precious life is."

Tom Smith can be reached at 740-5757 or tom.smith@TimesDaily.com.