Newborn Found in Middle of Road

She's expected to survive amid search for mom in California
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 12, 2019 11:21 AM CST
Newborn Found in Middle of Road
Stock photo   (Getty Images/KaraGrubis)

It was dark, but Aurelio Fuentes Jr. could see the grass edging the roadside was frozen. In the middle of the road sat a squirming bundle; the 21-year-old could hear the screams over his car radio, turned low as he delivered newspapers in Madera Ranchos, Calif., early Monday, per the Fresno Bee. In an "awful, chilling, moment" came the realization: Fuentes was looking at a newborn baby girl wearing only a onesie with temperatures at "30 degrees, maybe even less." He called 911 and, together with another passerby, tried to keep the infant warm until help arrived. "The baby was cold, but luckily she was discovered early enough that she'll make a full recovery," Undersheriff Tyson Pogue of the Madera County Sheriff's Office tells KABC.

Police are now looking for a Hispanic woman, possibly in her early 20s, who stopped her white SUV and asked a pedestrian to take the infant around 4:30am. The male witness told police that the woman—facing possible charges of felony child endangerment and attempted murder—drove away with the baby after he told her to go to a safe surrender site, like a fire station or hospital. The child, with an umbilical cord still attached, was ultimately rushed to the nearby Valley Children's Hospital shortly after 4:30am; it's unclear exactly how long she was in the cold. Fuentes says he's lucky to have arrived before an animal or other passing car. As he was nearing a customer's house, he says he was only driving 5mph. The speed limit is 45mph, per KABC. (A newborn's body was found at an Amazon warehouse.)

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