A North Carolina woman walking her dog on Thursday heard an unusual noise coming from a black bag in a blue trash bin behind Christ Community Church in Wilmington. When she ripped the bag open, she found a newborn baby, covered in blood with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.
Cynthia Burton picked up the baby boy and called out for help, but no one was at the church, WECT reported. So she ran to a nearby apartment complex — the tiny boy in one hand and a leash attached to her dog Flounder in the other — where she waved down a couple on their patio and asked them to call 911.
Then she unwrapped the umbilical cord, and she and the couple cradled the boy, singing “Jesus Loves Me,” until paramedics arrived.
Burton told WECT that she doesn’t normally take that route while walking Flounder, but she did on Thursday to keep the dog’s feet off the scorching hot pavement.
“[The baby boy is] very powerful and very strong because he cried out to live, and if I had walked by, and not heard a sound I’d have kept on walking,” Burton told the station on Friday. “But he cried, and he kept on crying. He cried until I went and got the bag and pulled him up. And when I opened the bag, he stopped crying. That’s when I think he knew he was safe.”
Burton said she didn’t sleep Thursday night and wishes she could have helped the mother.
“Every time I close my eyes, I felt that I was reopening the trash bag and seeing the baby,” she said, adding that she hopes the little boy grows up to know that he’s loved.
Police said they don’t know how long the infant was in the bag, but he survived and is doing well in the hospital.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast:
[Featured image: Pixabay]
