The recent case of Murray v. Sensabaugh denies a "biological" mother any presumption in favor of her versus a prospective adoptive couple, because she had "abandoned" the child and "voluntarily relinquished custody" to the couple. Thus it evaluated whether her visitation should continue without any presumption, but solely based on the child's best interest, and found "clear and convincing" evidence in favor of terminating the mother's visitation The opintion lists some facts that justified this:
- Before the couple sought custody, she and another person regularly brought the child to them dirty, unwell, injured and/or hungry; asked the couple for money; and often drove the child wihtout a valid driver's license.
- The couple claimed she posed "scantily clad" and holding weapons for "vulgar photos" used on "a commercial web site."
- She posted online that her job was "selling sex toys".
- The child called her by her name, not "mom".
- When court-ordered to take a parenting class and get a driver's license, she took a year to take the class and longer to get the license.
The mother also appealed the denial of her "motion to strike" the adoption petition, and the court refused to hear the appeal because what the mother chose to appeal was not a final order; the adoption itself was still pending at the time of the denial of the motion to strike, and the judge had referred the case to the DSS for home studies and a report.