Greene County Sheriff's Department Det. George Dallaire, who investigated the April Finch case last year, says by her own words, the defendant admitted to the crime of placing her baby girl into the locked trunk of a car.

After doing that she called the Greene County Sheriff's Department June 6, 2007 and reported her 3 1/2 month old baby girl was missing.

Finch alleged that she was in the shower and when she emerged her baby was not in her crib.

A search followed and the baby was found in a locked car trunk in the yard of Finch residence in Jasonville. The baby was wrapped in two blankets.

According to court records, when the baby was discovered she was "drenched in sweat despite the fact that the outside temperature was in the 50s, her diaper was very wet and full of fecal matter, she appeared to have vomited while in the trunk and was foaming at the mouth."

The baby was treated at Greene County General Hospital in Linton for dehydration and released.

Finch was arrested after a four-day investigation and several interviews with Greene County Sheriff's Department, Jasonville City Police, Indiana State Police officers, and investigators from office as well as officials with the Greene County Department of Child Services.

Dallaire testified that during an interview with Finch, she admitted to the crime.

"She said she had put the child in the trunk and said she didn't know why," Dallaire told the court Wednesday at Finch's sentencing hearing.

Dallaire said Finch recanted that story and during an Indiana State Police polygraph exam, stuck with her original story that her daughter had been missing and she didn't know how she ended up in the car trunk.

However, the polygraph exam indicated that Finch was not being truthful.

Later, she told a state police investigator that she put the baby in the vehicle's trunk to get attention, according to Dallaire.

Dallaire testified that the baby was in the car truck for between 4 and 4 1/2 hours.

Finch's adopted mother and former foster mother, Cheeba Sobotka, of Evansville, testified that Finch first came into her care at age 4.

Five years later Sobotka and her husband adopted her.

Sobotka says she believes her daughter suffers from a mental illness that she identified as dissociative identity disorder -- formerly known as multiple personality disorder.

Dissociative identity disorder is thought to stem from trauma experienced by the individual with this disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism -- the person literally dissociates themselves from a situation or experience too traumatic to integrate with their conscious self. Symptoms of these disorders are also seen in a number of other mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder, according to information provided by the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Sobotka appealed to the court not to incarcerate her daughter -- saying she needed two or three years of mental health treatment that she does not believe will be available in the prison system.

Under questioning from deputy prosecutor Cheryl Stone, Sobotka told the court that in the past her daughter had done things to create "chaos" in order to get attention.

Kenneth Finch, the baby's father and Finch's husband since October 2006, testified that he was at work when he got a call from April telling him that the couple's 3 1/2 month old baby was missing.

He came home immediately and assisted in the search for the young child.

He was there when the locked trunk was opened.

"She (the baby) smile and looked up at us," Kenneth Finch recalled.

He also told the court that he recognizes that his wife has a mental disorder and needs treatment. However, he believes that treatment could best be obtained in an in-patient psychiatric facility and not in prison.

He said putting her in prison would be "extremely harmful" to her mental health and he added, "I can see it tearing her down even more."

Kenneth Finch told the court that in his estimation, his wife is not yet ready to resume care of his daughter, who is being cared for by his stepmother.

"My daughter really does need a mother," he stated.

Kenneth Finch said his wife grew up in more than 25 foster homes before she was adopted. He alleged she was physically, mentally and sexually abused in some of those foster home placements.

Finch's step-mother-in-law Pat Dipley, of Midland, was in the courtroom and she said, "I think it (the sentence) was fair. I was glad that he (Judge Erik Allen) did realize that this was a serious thing."

Her sister-in-law, Loretta Jackson, of Jasonville, appeared relieved that the courtroom ordeal was over and she said, "It's left in God's hands. Maybe she will get the help she needs."