Missing Postpartum Mom Found

Nov. 14, 2007 — -- A Rhode Island mother who had been missing for nine weeks and suffered from postpartum depression was found this weekend, nearly 400 miles from her home on Baltimore's Skid Row, the city's toughest and most dangerous areas.

"This is really a dream. You can't say enough good things about it," said family friend Steven Fillippi.

A huge reward and massive search failed to find 35-year-old Katie Corcoran of Lincoln, R.I., but when a Baltimore shopkeeper did a simple Internet search all was revealed.

"Recently, [the shopkeeper] noticed a woman who appeared out of character," said deputy chief Brian Sullivan, of the Lincoln Police Department. After she approached her, the shopkeeper was only able to get her first name.

"The shop owner then got online and Googled missing Katies," Sullivan said.

She stumbled upon a Web site created by Katie's husband, Rob Corcoran, who flew to Baltimore to pick up his wife after she was found. He had posted her picture online along with a letter calling her a dedicated mother. He pleaded for her return.

Katie's family said she had gone missing after she checked out of a Providence, R.I., psychiatric hospital, where she was receiving help for postpartum depression. Then, she simply walked away without a word to family or friends.

Katie began acting strangely almost immediately after her baby was born nine months ago. Her family blamed her disappearance on the postpartum depression.

On the site he created for Katie, an angry Corcoran also expressed his dissatisfaction with the health-care industry, saying "how miserably the health-care system had failed to help her."

As her family searched for her, they hoped for the best, but feared the worst.

"I'd like to help her and take care of her as much as I can, and I do truly love her," said Katie's distraught mother, Nancy Newell, before her daughter had been found. "I'd just like her to come home."

Even though friends and family were happy to learn Katie was alive, they wondered how the mother of two had survived with a mere $40 in her pocket and how she ended up in the seedy Baltimore neighborhood.