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Police in California are searching for a woman after a newborn baby girl with her umbilical cord still attached was found abandoned in the middle of a remote stretch of road.
The infant was spotted at around 4am yesterday morning by a newspaper delivery man on his rounds in the semi-rural community of Ranchos Madera, about 20 miles north-west of the city of Fresno.
Aurelio Fuentes Jr. told the Fresno Bee that he initially thought the body in the road was an animal, but then realised in an “awful, chilling moment” that it was a crying newborn.
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The baby was wearing only a one-piece flannel pyjama set “in frigid temperatures” which neared zero degrees, ABC reports.
Fuentes said that, as well as the cold, the child would have been in serious danger from passing vehicles and wild animals. “It’s pitch black there,” he told local news station KABC. “Could’ve been coyotes... there’s cars going by fast down that road.”
He took the child into his car and contacted emergency services, who rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was said to be in a healthy condition. Medics estimated that the girl had been out in the open for no longer than half an hour, KMPH reports.
“Luckily, she was discovered early enough that she’ll make a full recovery,” Undersheriff Tyson Pogue said at a press conference yesterday.
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He added that a witness came forward to tell police he was approached by a woman carrying a baby a short time before Fuentes discovered the abandoned infant.
“She asked if he could take her child,” Pogue said. The man advised her to take the baby to the nearby hospital or fire station. The woman then got into a white SUV and drove away, he said.
Police are looking to interview the woman, who is described as of Hispanic appearance and aged in her 20s.
“We’d like to remind everyone that there are many safe surrender sites that will allow someone to surrender a newborn child without any questions asked,” he added.
