Baby Girl Found In South Carolina Dumpster, Mother Turns Herself In Hours Later

The case of an hours-old baby girl found in a dumpster near Myrtle Beach is coming into clearer focus.

Fox News is reporting that two brothers at Fairway Village in Horry County, South Carolina, were near the dumpster at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon when they thought they heard crying. One of the brothers, Austin Detray, traced the sound as coming from the dumpster near the Island Green Country Club. Detray jumped into the dumpster and found a newborn baby girl trapped inside a plastic bag.

“I… I heard it and I instantly knew it was a baby and she was crying, so I jumped in the garbage can, or the dumpster, and I started moving bags away. I got two or three bags down and saw the baby’s face pressed against the bag,” said Detray.

Austin told his brother to go get help, seeing that the plastic bag was suffocating the baby girl.

“It was tied shut. It was… it was horrible. I ripped it open and the umbilical cord was still there, the placenta, it was just born,” he said.

Austin’s mother, Jessica, came down to care for the baby girl until paramedics arrived. She got towels and cleaned and cared for the baby girl. Emergency responders arrived to take the baby girl to a nearby hospital. Jessica Detray said many were crying as they took Hope, the name Jessica chose for the baby girl, to the hospital.

The Detray family was later able to visit Hope in the hospital. Mrs. Detray said she would care for the baby girl, either foster care or adoption.

The Daily Mail is reporting that the baby girl’s birth mother, whose identity has not yet been released, decided to turn herself into police after seeing pictures of her on television. Police had released pictures taken from video footage in an effort to find the mother just hours after the baby girl was found.

The mother will be identified after she is formally charged.

Both mother and child are at the hospital. the eight pound, six ounce baby girl is listed in stable condition and now in the custody of the social services department. The mother is at the hospital for evaluation and will be charged once she is released.

“Hospital staff estimated the baby was only hours old,” said Horry County Police Department Lt. Raul Denis.

Jessica Detray had a message for the mother.

“To the parents, you ought to be ashamed of yourself,” she said. “I’m sorry, but there are hospitals and door-knocking you could have done to make sure the baby is safe.”

[Image courtesy of Daily Mail]