PORT TOWNSEND — The man arrested in connection with the death of an infant in Kah Tai Park appeared in court Monday, when Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Brandon Mack found probable cause to hold him for investigation of two charges with a third pending.
Jordan T. Sorensen, 37, of Port Townsend will be arraigned Feb. 2 on one count of unlawful disposal of human remains and one count of removal/concealment of a dead body.
A potential charge of second-degree kidnapping-domestic violence is pending while investigators determine if Sorensen is the father of the boy, a newborn less than a month old identified in court records only as “OS,” and whether Sorensen was legally able to have custody of him.
Sorensen was being held Monday at the Jefferson County jail in lieu of $205,000 bail, which includes $5,000 from an unrelated third-degree theft charge from May 2022.
The probable cause statement filed Monday gave the following account of events:
Port Townsend police officers were dispatched Friday to help the state Department of Children, Youth and Families regarding Sorensen and the infant, who was described as being his son.
“Shortly after his birth, DCYF received a report on December 26, 2023, that the mother (Kiersten Anderson) and the baby tested positive for fentanyl. The other concern in the report was Anderson was not bonding with the child,” the probable cause statement read.
Sorensen was caring for the child most of the time, so a safety plan was developed. Sorensen was required to live with Pamela Andrews and given temporary custody with the stipulation that he was not to be alone with OS until he provided a clean urine sample and submit to weekly testing.
The probable cause statement did not identify Andrews’ relationship to Anderson.
“We think she’s somehow family but we don’t really know,” Jefferson County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chris Ashcraft wrote in a Monday afternoon e-mail. “I haven’t seen or heard how she’s tied into this awful situation.”
Sorensen was allowed to be with OS unsupervised after a urinalysis returned clean on Jan. 8. He was required to provide another urine sample at a Jan. 11 doctor’s appointment for OS but left without doing so.
Sorensen did not respond to a Jan. 16 text message from DCYF that he was required to provide a urine sample that day and that a referral was being put in. He ignored another message on Wednesday.
Andrews met with DCYF and told them Sorensen was bragging about passing his urinalysis by buying urine from a retail store.
On Thursday, Andrews contacted DCYF and told them Sorensen had told her he had given the baby to “Aunt Mary,” who is not identified in the court records. Later that night, Andrews messaged DCYF that Sorensen and Anderson were back home, but OS was not with them.
On Friday, DCYF tried contacting both Sorensen and Anderson, but neither answered and nobody was at the apartment where OS was supposed to be. Then Andrews told DCYF that Sorensen had taken the baby to hide from Child Protective Services.
A representative from DCYF called law enforcement late Friday morning after learning that Anderson and Sorensen were visiting transient friends at Kah Tai Park and OS was not with them.
Just before 5 p.m. Friday, Mack authorized law enforcement to secure custody of OS and arrest anyone trying to prevent them from doing so.
On Saturday, police received a call about 10 a.m. from a transient in Kah Tai Park saying that Sorensen was hiding in back of his tent and the baby’s location was unknown.
Officers located Sorensen and took him into custody after a brief struggle, but the baby was not located.
As Sorensen started walking officers to the baby’s location, he started mumbling that the child was dead. He then explained that he had woken up on Wednesday in a chair in Andrews’ apartment with the baby lying facedown between himself and the chair and blood was coming from the baby’s face. He freaked out and did not know what to do. Sorensen stated that this was when the baby died.
The child was located deceased in his car seat in bushes in the park.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.