Police Locate Teen Mother Of Newborn Found In Indiana Backyard

The teenage mother of a newborn found alone in an Indiana backyard has been located by the police.

Last week, the Inquisitr reported a story about a 9-year-old girl finding a newborn baby girl in her backyard at her home in Lowell, Indiana. The newborn was found wrapped in a black towel and was described as being full-term with the umbilical cord and placenta still attached.

The newborn, who has since been dubbed “Miracle Jane Doe,” was said to be Caucasian with brown-blonde hair and was believed to have been in the backyard for several hours, possibly overnight, before being discovered by 9-year-old Elysia Laub at approximately 11 a.m. on Monday, July 11. With temperatures reaching near 90 degrees, the police have said it is a miracle the baby survived.

Nine year old Elysia Laub was playing in her yard when she found an abandoned infant wrapped in a towel @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/OdmS3ATsLm

— Randi Belisomo (@RandiBelisomo) July 11, 2016

“It’s obvious that this child, from the medical reports, was born just a few hours before it was found,” Sheriff John Buncich told NBC Chicago. “It could have been overnight.”

Luckily, Elysia, who has been called the newborn’s guardian angel, found the baby before it was too late.

“I just saw pink legs kicking away,” she recalled. “I knew it was alive and I knew we had something. I could not second-guess myself. I knew we had to get help.”

After Elysia found the newborn, she immediately sought the help of her mother, Heidi Laub, who then called 911. Heidi said the baby was naked in the towel, sunburned, and had maggots crawling on her umbilical cord and placenta. The newborn was then transported to St. Anthony Hospital in Crown Point, Indiana, to receive treatment.

“I thought it was a robotic doll. Then I ran to the baby and scooped it up and I said, ‘Elysia run to the house and call 911 as soon as possible,'” Heidi said. “I got to the house and we put one of our baby blankets around her.”

Elysia Laub, 9, thought one of her family’s baby pigs had escaped from its pen when she saw something small and… https://t.co/jt63huSGT0

— Precious Life (@PreciousLifeCom) July 14, 2016

On Monday, July 18, the Lake County Sheriff’s Department said the baby was still under medical observation but was doing well. They also announced that the Special Victims Unit investigators had located the mother, who is a local teenager. Because of the mother’s age, no other details are currently being released. The case has been turned over to the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) for further investigation, and the baby will be handed over to foster care later this week.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Indiana is one of the many states that has Safe Haven laws, which allow mothers to hand over their infants without fear of the law. Indiana also has Safe Haven Baby Boxes where the babies can be dropped off and immediately cared for.

“Safe Haven Baby Boxes allows a mother to place her unwanted child in a baby box that is outside selected fire stations. These boxes are equipped with a heating and cooling feature and are equipped with ADT trips so emergency personal will be notified within 30 seconds that there is a newborn placed in the box. The child will then be picked up by EMS within 3-5 minutes.”

Currently, there are two Safe Haven Baby Boxes locations in Indiana.

• Woodburn Fire Department located at 22731 Main Street, Woodburn, IN 46797
• Coolspring Fire Department located at 7111 W. 400 N., Michigan, IN 46360

Following the discovery of the newborn last week, Safe Haven Baby Boxes issued a statement.

“Safe Haven Baby Boxes is deeply saddened that a newborn baby girl was abandoned in a yard in Lowell, Indiana,” the statement read. “The baby girl was found by children playing this morning around 11 am. The baby girl is alive and being treated at the neonatal intensive care unit at Franciscan St. Anthony Health in Crown Point, Indiana. While we are still waiting for more information, what we do know is that another infant was not left in a Safe Haven location or as a last resort in the baby box, where help would have arrived within 5 minutes, not the hours it took for children to happen upon this poor little baby girl.”

“We did not receive calls on our hotline from this surrounding area asking for help or information,” the statement continued. “We do not know whether this mother knew about the Safe Haven Law or the Safe Haven Baby Box in Michigan City, Indiana. We have work to do, and we must double our efforts to educate and inform to protect every infant at risk. We are determined to continue to fight this battle for our most vulnerable children and are grateful that this precious little girl is still alive.”

[Image via Shutterstock]