Dead woman linked to missing child

Jen Lawson

Friday, Jan. 17, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.

A body found in a garbage bin Wednesday has been identified as 18-year-old Shalynn Hatter, a woman who was in the spotlight in October when her 2-year-old daughter disappeared for two days with a baby-sitter.

Hatter died of asphyxia, the Clark County coroner's office said this morning.

The Metro Police homicide unit is investigating, and no arrests have been made.

For two days in October Hatter was in the public eye when her daughter was reported missing. The baby-sitter, Metro Police discovered, was a woman using a false identity and had previous arrests for drugs, prostitution and lewdness.

On Oct. 7 Hatter asked her homeless mother watch her daughter, Quejanae. But Hatter's mother gave the little girl to a 20-year-old woman who was using the name Tiffany May. The Metro missing persons section launched a high-profile search for the woman and Quejenae.

Police soon discovered that the woman who took Quejenae had stolen the real Tiffany May's identity. The woman, whose name is Nicole Wijnaendts, 18, found out police were looking for her and left the girl with a friend at an apartment on Carson Avenue, and the friend called police.

Hatter and Quejenae were reunited, but not for long. The same night, Hatter was arrested for domestic violence in the assault of her mother. Quejenae was taken to Child Haven.

It was not clear this morning where Quejenae was. Joy Salmon, assistant director of Clark County Family Services, would not say whether or not she was in county custody.

"The child was not with the mother," Salmon said. "Her safety was not affected by her mother's death."

A maintenance man found Hatter's body in a garbage bin near the Charleston Plaza apartments at Fourth Street and Charleston Boulevard.