Spears vs. Youngs: Find Missing Baby Jasper

Hello, my name is Tabitha Spears and my husband's name is Jonathan Spears. I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on November 6th, 2023 and named him Jasper Michael. A CPS worker visited us in the hospital after receiving an anonymous report that we were not fit for our child. This scared us to our very cores because we loved this baby boy and wanted to be the best parents we could be. Neither myself nor my husband have a history of violence, alcoholism, or drug use. We had a house and both had stable sources of income. I was going through severe postpartum depression and was terrified of losing Jasper - even though I knew the CPS report had nothing to stand on. I was convinced to sign myself into a mental health facility 10 days after having a traumatic C-section so we could show that we were being proactive. Jonathan and I made the biggest mistake of our lives and signed Jasper over to my father and Stepmother, Tim and Kendra Young, as Temporary Guardians. We did not give them full custody and we did not sign away our rights. We did this to protect him as well as give them the ability to take him to the pediatrician while I was getting treated for postpartum and Jonathan worked during the day.

When I got out of the behavioral health facility, things turned from bad to worse. The Young's set up a schedule for us to see Jasper - keeping Jonathan out of some visits. During all this, Jonathan's grandfather found out he had stage four pancreatic cancer that developed from his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and needed extra help. We wanted to wait until the CPS case was completely closed before terminating the Temporary Guardianship so we could continue to protect Jasper. The Young's became more controlling. They would not allow us to take Jasper to visit family and then they required us to get supervised visitation because we "disrupted" their home. The CPS case was closed and then we immediately submitted paperwork to terminate the Temporary Guardianship. They fought it every step of the way and would not let us see our child without a "professional" supervisor. We obtained a lawyer with some family help and did everything to get Jasper back. The day after Christmas 2023 Jonathan's grandfather passed away. The Young's did not care. We still could not see our child. They argued that Jonathan was disinterested in Jasper and that I was too unstable to care for him properly. We finally got to see Jasper with a supervisor on April 27th - months after we had last seen him. My Momma, who was on 24/7 oxygen and had broken her ankle the month before I gave birth, finally got to meet Jasper for the first and only time in May. She was found dead in her home on July 23rd, 2023. Her oxygen cannula was off her face and she had an aide at the house since 8:00 that morning.

I asked if I could have Jasper at my Momma's, his grammy's, funeral but the Young's refused to allow me to see my child the day of the funeral and did not bother to pay their respects either.

Supervised visitation finally turned to unsupervised visitation after we had court December 13th, 2024. The judge sent the paperwork on December 18th stating we could begin unsupervised visitation that weekend as well as have Jasper for Christmas. I sent a text to the Young's informing them that we'd be at their home Saturday to pick Jasper up, but we're informed they were out of town. We followed the court order and showed up at the dates and times specified, but their home was up for sale and completely empty from a look in the window. They showed up on a Zoom call during an emergency court hearing on December 27th and claimed they were in Wheeling, West Virginia. The judge gave them over 24 hours to return to town and allow us to see our child, but that was the last time anyone heard from them.

Jonathan and myself stopped by their house during the court ordered times and knocked before leaving without news of our child. We have followed our attorney's advice and have not harassed them despite being filled with worry.

We were given back custody on January 6th, 2025, but we have no idea where the Young's are with our child. The court order specified that the Young's have proven to be the opposite of what Jasper needs by not following the ruling. The judge agreed that there was no evidence showing myself and my husband as incapable of caring for our child. Law enforcement has indicated we will need to look outside the country and that's where you come in. We need help. Your donation will be used for attorney fees and travel expenses to ensure we can find our baby boy and bring him home.

If you know of any resources that we may not know of, please feel free to message either one of us. We last saw Jasper December 7th of last year and we frankly don't know if he's safe. Devastated and worried doesn't even cover it.

The money raised is to help us reunite with Jasper, not to extort for our own benefit. If we are able to stay in the country and get our son back, we will refund every donation.