Texas Hospitals on Alert After “Unusual” Adoption Inquiry

“North Texas hospitals have been put on alert after two individuals approached Parkland staff members asking about adopting a baby from the hospital.

On May 3, 54-year-old Walter Stall and 38-year-old Misty Wallace allegedly entered the neonatal intensive care unit on the fourth floor of Parkland Hospital saying they needed to adopt a baby.

Stall then said he was going to take a baby from the operating room, according to the Dallas County Hospital District Police Department.

A Parkland Health & Hospital System spokesperson told News 8 Parkland issued an awareness bulletin because the incident was “unusual.”

From her Collin County home, Wallace told News 8 she was duped by Stall, her boyfriend of three weeks. Wallace says she and Stall met over a dating website.

According to Wallace, Stall told her he had a friend that was having a child she couldn’t care for. She said Stall told her he had adoption papers after he sought help from an attorney. She says he also claimed to have gotten signatures from a judge, making Wallace the adoptive mother and Stall the father.

She said they went to Dallas Children’s Hospital and then later to Parkland in search of the child. Wallace said she never spoke with anyone at Parkland. Instead, Stall did all the talking while she waited at a nearby elevator on the fourth floor of the Parkland Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

“He told me he had a baby up there that was having surgery that needed us,” she said. “But when we got there, nobody would allow us to know anything or wouldn’t let us around anybody.”

The pair then later went to the Medical Center of McKinney on Friday after she said Stall was experiencing chest pains. It was there they were instantly recognized by hospital staff from the Parkland incident.

Wallace says she hasn’t seen the adoption papers or the child and doesn’t know if they exist. What she has seen are the be-on-the-look-out pictures of them. Wallace claims that Stall conned her into thinking she would have a child to care for. She says she felt “dumb” for trusting someone she has only known for a short while.

When asked how she feels about her picture being up in nearly every North Texas hospital and the public perception surrounding it, she said, “They can believe what they want to believe. I know I would never do anything to hurt a child. My family knows I’d never hurt a child and I don’t take something that ain’t mine.”

Niether [sic] Stall or Wallace have been arrested or charged with any crimes. News 8 also caught up with Stall over the phone. He says that Wallace’s claims are bogus. He says there is a child and adoption papers. He also says he never threatened any hospital staff or said he would take a child.

A PHHS release said awareness alerts were sent to area hospitals on May 3 and May 10 as “a precautionary measure.”

No attempts were made to abduct a baby from Parkland or any other local hospital. The couple could, however, be “casing area hospitals attempting to abduct a baby,” according to DCHDPD.

Hospital District police listed Stall and Wallace as “possibly homeless.” Stall has a criminal history, the department said. No criminal history was listed for Wallace.”

Hospitals on alert after couple’s ‘unusual’ adoption inquiry [WFAA 5/11/16 by Landon Haaf and Jobin Panicker]

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