Police in Houston are searching for a man seen on surveillance video leaving a newborn baby girl near a walking trail, while praising the family that found the infant just minutes afterward.
“The baby was a newborn … still had, you know, fresh placenta on the baby, so it was freshly born this morning,” Harris County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Juan Garcia told KHOU.
Update: we need your help! We are seeking info about a young Hispanic or White male, slim, fair complexion with black hair, that was holding the infant wrapped in a towel. He was wearing a black shirt, possibly gray pants. The male was on foot on the Plantation
1/2 https://t.co/5gqP4OwLbt— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) June 15, 2024
Harris County Sheriff Ed Harris said the man who left the baby by the Plantation Lakes walking trail around 9 a.m. Saturday was a Hispanic or white man with a slim build, fair complexion, and black hair.
The infant was found wrapped in a towel. Daniela Fedele and her family were on the trail when they came upon the baby, spotting the towel as they were on their way back home.
“I noticed two little feet moving and then my husband was right behind me with the dogs, and I yelled to my husband. I’m like, oh my god, a baby, a baby,” said Fedele. “And then my husband like, call 911, call 911 and that’s what we did.”
The neighbor’s surveillance footage shows the unknown man leaving the baby behind — in the hot sun — and then two minutes later, Fedele and her family arriving on the scene
.“Once my husband went ahead and picked up the baby, he found the nearest, like, tree right there, the house down the street. He found a little shade,” Fedele said.
When first responders arrived, they rushed back out with the child. The baby was taken to Methodist Hospital in Katy and is said to be in good condition.
Fedele said they had seen the man who left the baby run from the scene.
“This image has been going on through my head so many times, and this is, like, how can you do that? I was shocked, I was mad, I was upset,” she said.
Garcia told KHOU that the Fedeles “were in the right place at the right time.”
“The two witnesses that were thankfully walking on the trail with their daughter and their dogs were a blessing,” he said.
Texas has a safe haven law that allows parents to surrender newborns up to 60 days old to an employee of any hospital, fire station, or emergency medical services (EMS) station.
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[Featured image: Family flags down arriving first responders after finding newborn/KHOU screenshot]
