UPDATE: American Idol alum Syesha Mercado and her partner Tyron Deener‘s 20-month-old son, Amen’Ra, returned home to be with his parents about seven months after he was taken away by child protective services and put in foster care amid allegations of “abuse and neglect,” accusations the couple denied.
On Oct. 1, Mercado shared on Instagram a video of Amen’Ra riding home with her and Deener and playing Peek-a-Boo and clapping inside the vehicle.
“It’s a great moment to have Ra physically back with us but it’s not over with,” Deener said. “We gotta deal with six months of supervision, of the state coming to our home every week for the next six months to show that we’re competent and able to raise our own baby.”
Mercado and Deener had been allowed to visit their son while he was in foster care. The couple received more than $465,000 in GoFundMe donation pledges over the past few months to help bring their boy home.
“Our son is exactly where he needs to be,” Mercado said in a video posted on Tuesday, Oct. 5. ”He’s home. He never should have been taken in the first place.”
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American Idol alum Syesha Mercado has been reunited with her newborn daughter, Ast, more than a week after sheriff’s deputies took away the baby, her second, during a surprise welfare check.