BAKER COUNTY, Fla. — Action News is investigating the past of missing 21-month-old Lonzie Barton’s parents.
We've found several incidents on Baker County of domestic violence involving Chris Barton and Lonna Lauramore, but no convictions. However we've found out situations like these have changed the way the Baker County Sheriff's Office reports domestic violence to the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Action News spoke with BCSO investigators about the change, also spoke exclusively with someone who has known Lonzie's parents for years.
Ransom Barefoot said he's known Lauramore since they were in school and Lonzie since he was born.
"I've broken down quite a few times," he said.
The tears were hard to hold back as Barefoot spoke about Lonzie's disappearance.
"It's on my mind every day. I haven't slept since he's gone missing," Barefoot said.
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He said Lonzie's mom and dad have had a troubled past.
"When Chris was around, she was 100 percent all about the kids, sure she has her bad ways but these days who doesn't," Barefoot said.
We went through a Baker County police report from last May. It names Lauramore as a suspect in a drug case with Ruben Ebron, the main suspect in Lonzie's disappearance, but Lauramore wasn't arrested.
We also found a report from 2012 for domestic violence naming Lauramore and Barton. It says Barton allegedly restrained Lauramore so another person could hit her. The charges were eventually dropped on everyone. The report also said DCF was notified.
We asked DCF if they followed up on the case but they couldn't say, citing privacy laws. BCSO couldn't say for sure either because it wasn't specifically documented. That's why there's a new policy for such cases.
Maj. Gerald Gonzalez said they now require deputies to document the DCF operator's ID number when they report a case. That wasn't required before.
"We are able to account for speaking to someone and have a way to identify who we spoke to," Gonzalez said.
DCF said they applaud the Sheriff's Office to help those investigating and documenting domestic violence cases across Baker County.
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