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.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
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.
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.
-
What to know before turning to AI for financial advicethe explainer It can help you crunch the numbers — but it might also pocket your data
-
Book reviews: 'The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction—and a Search for Relief' and 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run'Feature The search for a headache cure and revisiting Springsteen's 'Born to Run' album on its 50th anniversary
-
Keith McNally' 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Home Office worker accused of spiking mistress’s drink with abortion drugSpeed Read Darren Burke had failed to convince his girlfriend to terminate pregnancy
-
In hock to Moscow: exploring Germany’s woeful energy policySpeed Read Don’t expect Berlin to wean itself off Russian gas any time soon
-
Were Covid restrictions dropped too soon?Speed Read ‘Living with Covid’ is already proving problematic – just look at the travel chaos this week
-
Inclusive Britain: a new strategy for tackling racism in the UKSpeed Read Government has revealed action plan setting out 74 steps that ministers will take
-
Sandy Hook families vs. Remington: a small victory over the gunmakersSpeed Read Last week the families settled a lawsuit for $73m against the manufacturer
-
Farmers vs. walkers: the battle over ‘Britain’s green and pleasant land’Speed Read Updated Countryside Code tells farmers: ‘be nice, say hello, share the space’
-
Motherhood: why are we putting it off?Speed Read Stats show around 50% of women in England and Wales now don’t have children by 30
-
Anti-Semitism in America: a case of double standards?Speed Read Officials were strikingly reluctant to link Texas synagogue attack to anti-Semitism
