Story about delivery on highway unravels

MERRIAM, Kan. -- It was a heartwarming story that garnered a lot of media attention -- a baby born in a pickup truck alongside Interstate 35 as her mother was being rushed to the hospital.

But one day later, the mother's story began to unravel as police said the newborn had drugs in her system and that her eight siblings were in state custody in Missouri.

Brianna Adams was born Thursday while her mother -- who identified herself to reporters as Jolene Adams -- was being driven by a friend to Shawnee Mission Medical Center. A stranger stopped to help and got the newborn breathing.

The positive news is that the man who stopped to help, Keenan Darnell, 30, likely saved the child's life, Merriam Police Detective Mike Daniels said.

"Without him and his assistance, the baby would never have started breathing," Daniels said.

Newspaper and television reporters were invited to the hospital Thursday to hear from the mother about Brianna's birth, weeks premature.

But someone who saw the story on television tipped off the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, the hospital and KMBC Channel 9 that all was not what it seemed.

As Brianna rested in police protective custody at the hospital Friday, detectives were preparing reports on her mother for prosecutors, police said. A hearing to declare the newborn a child in need of care was set for Tuesday in Johnson County District Court.

Police said the mother was really Linny Jolene Robinson. Adams is the last name of the baby's father, Daniels said.

Instead of having three other children as she said, Robinson has eight -- and Missouri officials had already taken custody of all of them, Daniels said.

Police said they stepped in to take Brianna after doctors told them the newborn's blood was tainted with amphetamines, a class of drug that includes methamphetamine.

The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services will conduct an investigation, said spokeswoman Stacey Herman. Then a decision will be made on whether to place the child in foster care or with a relative.