In re Adoption of W.B.L.

GUNN, Judge.

This appeal involves the adoption of a child on the grounds of abandonment and neglect by the natural mother under § 453.-040(4), RSMo 1978. On the petition for adoption of the child by the natural father and his wife by a second marriage, the trial court found that the natural mother had abandoned and neglected the child for the requisite statutory period and thereby terminated her parental rights without her consent. The petition for adoption was granted. The natural mother thereafter appealed to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, which affirmed the trial court’s…