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Mum vanished after baby found dead in bathtub and house engulfed in flames

Joey, who had the estimated mental capacity of a 14-year-old, could feel overwhelmed by her disabilities and was known to isolate herself. She vanished without a trace.

[Joey wearing glasses with flowers behind her]

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Joey was missing from her rented home, which had been engulfed in flames(Image: Family Handout )

A family home was destroyed in what seemed like a freak fire but inside a far stranger story played out as a disabled mother abandoned her dead baby in a bath before disappearing forever.

On a quiet residential road in Pennsylvania in the early hours of the morning in the summer of 2007, emergency services rushed to a home engulfed in flames on Dr. Fugate Drive.

By the time officers arrived the fire had consumed a large part of the house and tragically firemen discovered the remains of a baby boy in a bathtub, as per Morbidology. His mother was nowhere to be seen.

An investigation revealed the fire was arson, as evidence of accelerant was found. An autopsy could not confirm the infants cause of death, but it determined he had been killed before the fire was set.

It was found the house was rented by 33-year-old Joey Lynn Offutt, and just six weeks earlier Joey had given birth to a baby boy, Alexis Alfred Brolin, III.

[Joey had just had her third child with her partner]

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Joey had just had her third child with her partner(Image: Family Handout )

Joey was mildly intellectually disabled with the estimated mental capacity of a 14-year-old and she spoke with a noticeable speech impediment. She could feel overwhelmed by her disabilities and was known to isolate herselfrefusing to answer her phone or door for days, according to WTAJ news.

It turned out Joey had always wanted a family of her own. She grew up as a child of divorce after her parents split when she was just three-years-old.

Joey was by all accounts a painfully shy and insecure child, with her mother, Sherry Hallett, saying she maintained a childlike naivety.

Joey had studied journalism for a year at Shepherd University in West Virginia, but dropped out after failing her first year. Moving from job to job she had two children who were nine and two in 2007. However, her relationship with the eldest childs father fell apart.

Joey eventually moved to Sykesville, where she gave birth to her third child, with an on and off-again boyfriend, Alexis Brolin, also the father of Joeys middle child. Joeys mother said: She was happy there and loved her children.

Luckily, Joeys eldest children were staying with relatives at the time of the fire. Joeys other two children were staying with relatives. Investigators issued a missing persons appeal for Joey, and maintained that she had disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

Police believe someone may have abducted her or killed her as her red 1994 Saturn coupe with Virginia license plates was missing from her home.

Two days after the fire on July 16, investigators found Joeys car parked outside an apartment in State College, around 70 miles east of the home she rented in Sykesville. Even more strangely, the car was parked outside an apartment where Joey used to live with Alexis, the father of her son.

Investigators said they were looking for Joey out of concern for her welfare. Her family immediately said Joey must not have been driving the car. It was parked immaculately and as her family said, Joey was not a good driver, nor was she a good parker. Alexis said he had no clue how the car ended up parked outside the apartment.

The initial theory was that Joey had killed her son, started the fire and fled. State Police Trooper Bruce A. Morris said: Its almost like shes fallen off the face of the planet. Im confident this case is going to be resolved. Shes the key to this whole thing.

The family believe Joey may have been missing since the day before the fire, as a bag of rotting hamburger meat was found inside her fridge. The last time Joey was seen was on July 5.

Two days after Christmas in 2007, skeletal remains were discovered in Somerset, Pennsylvania. The remains belonged to a petite, brown-haired woman aged between 30 and 40-years-old who had died during the summer. The body bore similarities to Joey, and investigators working on her disappearance immediately contacted Somerset authorities, however, it was later ruled out as being Joey.

In July of 2008, Joeys family put forward a reward of $15,000 for information that could lead them to her.

Her nephew, Jason Hungerford, said he didnt think Joey just went missing as she would never abandon her children. He said: Each of us is bracing for the news that she is dead. If anyone knows anything, or saw anything even if they didnt think at the time that it meant anything please call the Pennsylvania State Police.

Her mother, Sherry, said: I believe that someone in that little town knows what happened. Its taken me more than a year to run it through my mind, but I believe its somebody that she knew.

When the case aired on Americas Most Wanted, a tip came in from Decatur in Alabama from a man who said he spoke to Joey in Decatur in November.

On the two year anniversary of her disappearance the reward fund for information was increased to $20,000. Jason said: I think that were at this point working on the assumption that she was the victim of a crime and most likely that shes dead. So were looking for a body. Thats very difficult for us to say, but we cant fathom any other possibility. She certainly would not have run off on her own, leaving her other children behind.

Joeys family said Alexis Breslin has helped and cooperated in every way possible. Joey was described in a missing person flyers as a 5 foot 3 white woman with a slim build and had brown hair and brown eyes. She may have been wearing glasses when she disappeared.

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