MIAMI (WSVN) – An incident inside a South Florida prison has made national headlines. Tonight, we hear exclusively from both mom and dad for the first time. Investigative reporter Heather Walker is at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade.
7News broke the story in January, when the woman’s family wanted to know how something like this could happen here. The DNA results showed that the father was another inmate.
Daisy Link: “Hello.”
Daisy Link has spoken for the first time about how she became pregnant in prison.
In an exclusive interview with 7Investigates, the 29-year-old said she can’t believe it even happened.
Daisy Link: “It’s really perverse. Everyone says to me, this is like the Lifetime Movie Network.”
Link was charged with second-degree murder and is being held awaiting trial.
Police said Link shot her boyfriend in the leg, killing him, then raised the gun.
Surveillance video: “It’s okay.”
She has been a prisoner at TGK for over two years. But in June, Link gave birth to a baby girl.
Daisy Link: “She’s a miracle baby, she’s a blessing.”
It’s a miracle because Link said he had never met the baby’s father in person.
Daisy Link: “I’ve never met him. I’ve never done it, it’s crazy.”
He is also a TGK inmate and, like Link, has been charged with murder.
DNA testing revealed that Joan DePaz, inmate number 200147865, was the baby’s father.
Automated message: “This call is from the Miami-Dade Metro West Detention Center.”
Heather Walker: “So you guys have never physically touched each other?”
Joan Depass: “Never, like the Virgin Mary.”
Heather Walker: “The big question here is why did this happen?”
Daisy Link: “Through the vent.”
Link said she and Depass began talking through the cell’s air conditioning vent.
Daisy Link: “If you knock, you’ll hear people coming from the other floor. You’ll have to actually stand in the bathroom to talk to them.”
He also handed over notes and photos.
Daisy Link: “If you’re isolated for too long, you end up talking to that person for hours on end, and it’s like you’re in the same room.”
Link and Depass developed a romantic relationship, and the 23-year-old shared a dream.
Joan DePass: “I’ve always really wanted to have a baby. And I don’t really plan on doing it for a long time. So if I had to choose someone, it would be you. And she… I was like, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’
De Pass devised a plan.
Joan De Pass: “I’m not going to lie, this will go down in history.”
Daisy Link: “I don’t know what my destiny is, just like you don’t know what yours is either. If you’re going to go out, you might as well take the plunge, right? Hopefully, things go well. But it definitely was.”
Joan Depass: “I told her how one of my friends showed me through the vent, because the vent is L-shaped. It falls directly into my vent, from her room. When she throws a pen into the vent, it falls right into my vent.”
Daisy Link: “We figured out how to cut the line. It was a line that we established out of like bedding material.”
Joanne Depass: “I put the semen in saran wrap every day for about a month, about five times a day.”
Daisy Link: “He rolled it up like a cigarette and attached it to the line in the vent and I pulled it through. From there, I put it in the yeast infection applicator. I put it in there and administered it from there.
She said it only took a few tries before she got pregnant.
Daisy Link: “I was so excited. I was so excited about it.”
Heather Walker: “Is that possible?”
Dr. Fernando Ackermann/Fertility Specialist: “Yes, that’s the simple answer.”
Dr. Fernando Ackermann is the medical director of Miami Fertility Center. This makes a successful pregnancy unlikely, but not impossible, he said.
Dr. Fernando Ackermann: “It’s estimated that their chances are probably less than 5%, but it’s not a zero chance. So this is a totally unusual case. As far as I know, I have never heard or read anything about it.”
The baby was born on June 19th at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Daisy Link: “I can’t believe it worked out. I think everything happens for a reason.”
Joan Depass: “I’m like a celebrity here.”
Their baby is now 5 months old. She lives with his mother, who is a grandmother for the first time.
Link and Depass are now in separate prisons, but they still speak on the phone and see their daughter via video visitation.
Daisy Link: “She can be anything. I think she’ll be great.”
Now, you may be wondering how this could have happened without the correctional officers’ knowledge.
The Miami-Dade Department of Corrections is conducting an internal investigation, which officials say is ongoing.
Heather Walker, 7News
Contact 7 investigates:
305-627-CLUE
954-921-CLUE
[email protected]
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