Georgia authorities are searching for the mother of a newborn found wrapped in a plastic bag and abandoned in a wooded area in Cumming.
Residents of a nearby home were unloading their car after a trip on June 6 when they heard a noise coming from a secluded, wooded strip of land. At first, they thought they were animal sounds.
“[We] grabbed our flashlights and we’re driving around and we’re, like, ‘That doesn’t sound like an animal,'” Kayla Ragatz told CNN affiliate WSB.
“We were all crying.” These three teens — along with their parents — found a newborn abandoned in the woods, wrapped in a plastic bag: https://t.co/P34s6pqHlr NEXT ON CHANNEL 2: @LaurenPozenWSB
has the latest on the search for the mother. pic.twitter.com/4RPUSNYECq— WSB-TV (@wsbtv) June 8, 2019
They went into the woods and followed the sound to a pile of leaves and sticks, and then saw the baby wrapped in a plastic bag.
“You don’t anticipate hearing a baby in the woods,” Sheriff Ron H. Freeman told reporters Friday. “Thank God they went out and investigated.”
They called 911, and a baby girl believed to be hours-old was found in a plastic bag, Freeman said. Police and hospital staff involved in the baby’s rescue wanted her to have a name because they felt “like she is one of theirs,” he added. Instead of Baby Jane Doe, a local Forsyth County hospital named her India.
India is in a hospital receiving medical attention, and the Department of Family and Children’s Services will likely place her in foster care, Freeman said.
Law enforcement officials are canvassing the area, checking cameras and asking for the community’s assistance in figuring out how India got there.
If she was left there, the person involved could be charged with offenses such as abandonment and cruelty to children in the first degree.
But authorities are not going to speculate on criminal charges until they know what happened, Freeman said. Their priority is making sure India and the woman who gave birth to her are both safe and in good condition, he said.
Cumming is about 40 miles from Atlanta.
Newborn Baby Found in Field
A newborn baby girl was found covered in mosquito and ant bites after she was dumped in a field in Thailand, it was reported.
The girl was heard crying at night. Locals thought the noise was something else before they discovered her the next morning near Bangkok, the Daily Mail reported on May 23.
The girl was discovered on May 11.
Upon discovery, the girl’s skin looked raw and painful after she was bitten by the insects and was exposed to the elements in the field.
Officials said the child didn’t sustain serious injuries, but they added that her forehead was bitten frequently by insects, the Mail reported.
The baby was taken to Lat Krabang Hospital, where nurses have been taking care of the child, who has not been named.
Police are now searching for her parents.
“We believe that the parents might live nearby the area,” Lieutenant Colonel Samart Klinklao, inspector of Chalong Krung police station, was quoted by the paper as saying.
“Officers will check around the communities and ask the locals for more details,” the official said. “We will also check the CCTV cameras in the street to find who left the baby there.”
Jack Phillips contributed to this article.
