In abandoned baby case in Henrico, a lost chance
As Henrico County police continued to investigate the abandonment of a newborn boy in the front yard of a home in the eastern part of the county, they lamented the fact that it didn't have to happen.
Like many states, Virginia has a law designed to provide alternatives to troubled parents who want to relinquish their newborns.
"There is a safe-haven law in Virginia where if this mother was desperate, she could have dropped him off at a hospital," Henrico police Lt. Doug Perry said.
In Virginia, a parent can take his or her child within the first 14 days of birth to either a hospital that provides 24-hour emergency services or a rescue squad that employs emergency medical technicians.
If this is done, authorities would likely institute proceedings to terminate parental rights. But parents, in turn, could be protected from prosecution for abuse, neglect or endangerment.
"That's the best course of action instead of dropping it off to hopefully be found," Perry said.
While the state tracks the number of abandoned children each year, it does not have a separate category for those left under the safe-haven law, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services said.
Police said a woman out for an evening walk in her eastern Henrico neighborhood saw the newborn about 8:50 p.m. Thursday on the front lawn of a home in the 4400 block of Samara Drive.
"Thankfully he was found, but he could have died," Perry said. "There were no clothes on the baby."
Perry said the boy was taken to VCU Medical Center, where he was in good condition. The boy, of African-American descent with light skin, appeared to be less than a day old, Perry said.
Police canvassed the neighborhood after the discovery.
"He's definitely not from any of the houses around there," Perry said yesterday. "We went to every house last night talking to people. All indications are that he was dropped off there."
The focus of the investigation shifted yesterday to contacting area hospitals and police departments.
Police asked anyone with information to call Henrico police at (804) 501-5000 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (804) 780-1000.
Contact Joe Macenka at (804) 649-6804 or
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Reader Reactions
Ric4Me I agree, as my statement to the effect of there being no excuses for an infant being left on a lawn for someone to find attests too. I was commenting on the safe haven law and the need for it to be publicized as well as updated to include additional locations, maybe even those 7-11’s.
It is obvious to me that she wanted that baby found otherwise why leave him in plain sight on someone’s yard? There would have been many other places to leave the baby if she didn’t want it found.
If she had wanted the baby to live but didn’t want any questions asked I can only surmise that she had no knowledge of the law, otherwise she would have dropped the baby at a rescue squad or hospital, therefore my comment the law needs to be publicized.
In addition, if for instance transportation was an issue and she knew about the law, additional locations would make it easier for her to do the right thing and not jeopardize the baby’s life.
Was she stupid? Yes. Is it criminal? Yes, Does she deserve punishment? Yes. But I’d much rather focus on the whole issue of why someone would do something like this and find solutions to keep it from happening again then I would to just sit back and judge and critize each situation as they occur. That does nothing to solve the problem.
People need to be more concerned about the well-being of human beings. We should not assume that the parent is a teenager because adults can do stupid things too. This baby should not have been dropped off on the street. Family members probably would have helped the mother to come to some kind of decision. We all should be thankful that the baby was found and hopefully will be put with a very good family that has unconditional love. We don’t know why this happened, but for me, there are no excuses for it. If the mother is found, prosecution should be the mother’s last opportunity to see daylight for awhile.
Glad this baby was found before something terrible happened. At least now the baby will have a chance at life and wasn’t thrown in the dumpster like some babies are.
Interested,
While I take your point, the lack of comments is more a reflection of a lack of “self-appointed experts”.
Everyone has an opinion about how other people care for their pets and therefore feel coomfortable judging others’ misbehavior. This child abandonment incident just makes people shudder and shake their heads.
Ric4Me, you are right, I should not assume the baby’s momma and / or daddy is a teenager. It could well have been anyone, in fact, the baby could have been inadvertently taken (discovered, and then discarded) in a car jacking that has yet to be discovered. I would hope that an adult parent would have been smart enough to know there were better options, and this is why I assumed it was a teenager. In any event, I hope the baby will soon find a home with two parents to shower him with the love and attention he deserves. The person that discarded the baby like a piece of trash, will never know the love and joy this human will bring someone.
Do we have our priorities screwed up here?
So far there are only 2 comments on this despicable act by someone who unfortunately abandoned this baby in a front yard.
Three days ago, a dog owned by an SPCA official was ACCIDENTALLY left in a car purely by miscommunication and there were over 500 comments from the public, many of whom wanted HER or her husband’s head or tortured to death and/or resignation on the spot.
Don’t get me wrong, I grieved for that dog, too, but wake up folks. Where is the outrage over this baby and who’s going to own up to it? What will be its final destination?
Glen Allen, how do you know it was a teenager afraid to tell her parents? Until you know that for sure, don’t forgive the woman just yet… might not be who she turns out to be!
xxx, if she’s not from the area where she left the baby, according to police and neighbors, that means she got there somehow (car, bus, bike, on foot). That method of transportation could have just as easily taken her to a hospital, rescue station, police station, or some other logical place to get some help. Heck, I’m sure she could have walked into the nearest 7-11 or other such place and asked them to call for help.
I think it was more about not wanting to get caught. How selfish can you be? That baby didn’t ask to be brought into the world, the least you can do is make sure it actually has a chance at life. What if no one had found it until it was too late? That’s murder.
The Safe Haven law discussed in this article does not address this issue if in fact the baby was left by a child that was afraid to let their parent(s) know about the pregnancy. The law would have to be changed to include a “do not tell, do not ask” clause, but even at that, if the kid doesn’t go to school, she will not likely learn about the law. Unless of course, parents are to tell their children to 1) Not have sex, but if you do, 2) Use protection, but if you do not, 3) You can dump the kid off at the hospital and nobody has to know. Children having children is not a new problem, but it does seem to happen more often in our lower class areas containing the “projects” where a nut does not fall far from the tree, but the tax payers get stuck with the bill. Those on public assistance need to stop having babies until they can first pay for themselves. Instead of sleeping around, go to school and get a job.
Most people don’t even know this law exists. I also believe more locations need to be included as safe havens then just rescue squads and hospitals.
In this particular case the closest hospital or rescue squad to Samara Drive is about 6-7 minutes by car. If the person who left the baby was the mother and she didn’t have access to transportation, to walk 2-3 miles after having just given birth while carrying a newborn would not be an easy task.
While I don’t believe it excuses someone from just leaving a newborn to be found it does show me that changes need to be made to the law, it needs to be publicized more and it needs to be taught in sex ed. in the schools.
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