Megan Heichelbech thought she was responding to a standard adoption ad earlier this month, but her gut told her something was wrong the day she was supposed to buy a plane ticket to bring 4-month-old Eden back to her home in Florida.
"It was not an ad to urgently sell the baby," Heichelbech told ABCNews.com, adding that the costs and fees were similar to the ones that applied when she adopted her 5-year-old daughter.
Heichelbech answered the original ad on June 13, and said it asked for $6,500. She said she and the baby's mother exchanged photographs, emails and text messages.
The ad read, "I'm in search of an great family for my son. He is four months old and he is african american and hispanic. I can no longer care for him the way he needs to be. We are living in a womens shelter now. Im working with an adoption agency so there is an adoption fee they have set up. I believe its $6,500. Thank you and god bless."
However, when Heichelbech asked for the names of the birth mother's adoption facilitators and attorney, she never got an answer.
The birth mother -- whom police have not named but who lives in Dallas -- told Heichelbech to come get Eden, bring an ID and as much as she paid for her last child, which was $4,000. The Texas woman claimed the whole exchange would take 30 minutes.
Knowing the paperwork could take days, Heichelbech called Child Protective Services in Texas to ask about proper procedure, assuming the baby's birth mother just didn't know them.
"I called to ask them if I could find out ... if it's not legal at this point, what do I need to do to make it legal?" Heichelbech said.
That night, detectives called her and said they suspected the woman was trying to sell her baby for cash.
Dallas police arrested Eden's mother Friday on charges of child abandonment with intent to return, according to WFAA, ABC's Fort Worth affiliate.
An apartment manager entered a Shadow Ridge Village apartment that day to collect rent and found Eden alone. His mother was charged with a state jail felony, and the infant was taken into protective custody.
Heichelbech, who had all her paperwork in order and was expecting to bring home a baby, is devastated. She said CPS wants to try reuniting Eden with his family before any adoption can occur, but they said they'd keep her in mind.
"My 5-year-daughter ... keeps asking me, 'When is he coming home?'" she said. "I keep saying, 'Well, he's busy right now.'"
Also Read