Former DC firefighter who solved 1987 kidnapping case dies

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Don Derner died a few days ago. Don was a well-respected DC firefighter who spent many years as an aide in DCFD’s 3rd Battalion. It was in that role that Don helped solve a well-known kidnapping case, bringing the safe return of a newborn child snatched from Maryland’s Prince George’s Hospital Center.

If you were around the DC area in 1987 and paid attention to the news Jeremiah Thate may be a familiar name. Thate was just three weeks old and suffering from pneumonia when he was smuggled out of Prince George’s Hospital Center in a gym bag. The date was June 11.

When the newsroom at Channel 9 first learned of the kidnapping I was sent to the hospital to cover the story. It was already very late in the news day. The baby was taken just before 5:00 p.m. My cynical news colleagues and I figured the abductor was going to be someone known to the family or it involved a custody dispute. Prince George’s County Police Department PIO Bruce Gentile quickly set me straight. Gentile said this was a stranger abduction. Police wanted to get the word out quickly. We had one problem. Our news was off the air and “Wheel of Fortune” was on the air. You didn’t lightly break into “Wheel of Fortune”, a big money maker for the station with a loyal audience. But I pleaded the case to news director Dave Pearce and assignment manager Pat Casey. A few minutes later, instead of seeing Pat Sajak and Vanna White, Channel 9 viewers saw me.

Despite rapidly getting the word out, this kidnapping was not quickly solved. Jeremiah Thate was missing for months. His parents Terry and Robert remained heartbroken. Detectives and the Thates were becoming skeptical Jeremiah would be found. They were worried the baby was taken out of the area or sold. The Thates told their story in an extensive profile by reporter Walt Harrington for The Washington Post Magazine of Sunday, October 11th. That morning, Don Derner read the article while at work. If Don hadn’t figured it out before, he now realized he knew Terry Thate. She grew up near Don’s Oxon Hill home.

That same night, Derner ran a small fire in a mostly abandoned apartment building at 748 Howard Road SE. With the article fresh in his mind, Derner spotted two women coming out of the apartment with an infant. Don told me it wasn’t just that the women were Black and the baby was White that made him suspicious. It was also that the pair clearly didn’t want Don to check out the baby. They covered up the child and hustled toward the nearby Frederick Douglass Bridge over the Anacostia River. When he got back to the firehouse Don called the tip line to explain what he saw.

That tip was not immediately acted upon. There were two reasons. Police were inundated with tips after the Post’s story and detectives initially found an early witness credible who saw a White woman with a dark-blond ponytail. It wasn’t until October 28 that Jeremiah Thate was safely recovered from 748 Howard Road SE. While the baby was plump and healthy, the living conditions in the apartment were awful. The women were squatters in the run-down building.

As I recall, it was early evening when Gentile called to say the Thate baby was safe. I alerted the newsroom and the evening crew handled it well. The next day, on the way to work, I heard from Tom Tippett and Kenny Cox, president and vice-president of IAFF Local 36. They told me the story of Don Derner providing the tip that brought Jeremiah home. They wanted me to have the exclusive interview with Derner. While I was skeptical the story would hold long enough to be a Eyewitness News exclusive, my bosses loved the idea. They wanted me to interview Don live in the studio for the 5:00 p.m. news. Tom and Kenny said that was no problem.

As promised, Don arrived at 40th and Brandywine NW shortly after 4:00 p.m. We chatted for a while and then went down to the studio and got settled on the interview set. Don was great. He told a compelling story. He was very natural and provided the great detail you would expect from a long-time battalion chief’s aide. I had to rush to turn around the tape from our interview for the 6:00 p.m. newscast. So I said goodbye to Don. But I was premature. Don didn’t leave. Someone else had ideas of what Firefighter Derner should be doing for the next 90 minutes or so.

Pat Casey was the most aggressive news manager I’ve worked with. Pat knew if Derner walked out the front door of the station, our competition, having seen the live interview, would likely be waiting for him. Pat didn’t want them to get an interview with Derner on their early newscasts.

It turned out Channel 4 reporter Pat Collins was already at our front step waiting. If Derner came out, Pat could get a quick interview and be at his nearby studio within minutes. Or they could have Don on set live for their 6:00 newscast. Casey, who used to work at 4 with Collins, wasn’t going to let that happen. In a move that I think the wonderful Pat Collins always secretly blamed on me, Casey worked to keep Derner from leaving the building.

It started with a tour of the newsroom and the weather offices. Casey also picked up on something he heard me discussing with Don earlier. Derner was a huge fan of our very popular sports anchor Glenn Brenner. All Casey had to do was sit Derner down in the sports office, introduce him to Brenner and our firefighter friend wasn’t going anywhere. It was near 7:00 p.m. when Don finally walked out the front door to meet the frustrated Pat Collins and a few others.

Later, I ran into Brenner who said, “If Casey clued me in a little more I would have kept him occupied through the 11:00.” I am sure Glenn would have and Don would have loved it.

Don Derner and I kept in touch for many years and we had lots of discussions. We often laughed about the Channel 9 newsroom “kidnapping” the guy who solved the real kidnapping. Don called me in 1992 after Brenner died, way too young, from a brain tumor. Sadly, in 2011, Pat Casey also died from a brain tumor. And Don Derner is now gone. Besides his own family, he leaves behind a 36-year-old man, who may not have grown up with his own loving family if not for Don’s intervention.