Investigation into baby left at apartment continues

Police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding a week-old infant found in the bed of a pickup truck Saturday morning but are releasing few details about their efforts to identify the baby or his parents.

The baby boy was found at about 8:27 a.m. in the truck parked at High Road apartment complex. The child was responsive despite Saturday morning’s 49-degree weather and transported to the hospital where he remains.

A Florida Department of Children and Families investigator is assisting Tallahassee Police in determining how the child ended up in the truck.

While DCF does not keep data on the frequency of newborn infants being abandoned, Mike Watkins, CEO of Big Bend Community Based Care, said the practice is not very common. The organization will be responsible for taking care of the baby when he is released from the hospital.

The mother who left the child had options.

In 2000, state lawmakers passed the Safe Haven Law, which allows parents who feel they are incapable of caring for a newborn to leave them at hospitals, emergency medical stations or fire stations without repercussions. Under the Florida law, the child must be turned over within its first seven days of life. All 50 states have some form of legal framework about where a child can be left and the required age.

Watkins said since the law was passed in 2000, about 15 cases of parents seeking to give up their parental rights occur across Florida each year. Prior to the statute, data about the number of babies voluntarily turned over to authorities is scant.

The most recent case in Tallahassee was about five years ago, he said.

“The intent of (the law) was to avoid tragedies where for any number of reasons a lady will abandon a child in a place where the child will suffer and not survive,” Watkins said. “Locally, we don’t run into this very often.”

Whether the parent of the child found Saturday will face criminal charges depends on what investigators find.

“If there is no evidence of abuse or neglect, any parent who leaves a newborn infant with a firefighter, emergency medical technician, or paramedic at a fire station or emergency medical services station, or who brings a newborn infant to an emergency room of a hospital and expresses an intent to leave the newborn and not return, has the right to do this anonymously and will not be pursued or followed,” said DCF Press Secretary David Frady in an email.

Watkins said one of the challenges with the Safe Haven law is a lack of knowledge of its provisions. A national hotline can direct parents to safe haven locations and educate them on the process.

The next step for the child is to find foster placement among the group of volunteers who work with BBCBC.

Watkins said even if someone is not a foster parent, there are ways to help the baby boy.

“They could identify either their time, goods or dollars that they want directed toward this case and we could be the steward of those resources on behalf of the child,” he said.

With more than 300 kids in foster care in the region, BBCBC is always looking for volunteers, Watkins added.

“There’s some that go home every day and there’s some that go into foster care every day.”

The national Safe Haven hotline can be reached at 1-888-510-BABY. Big Bend Community Based Care can be reached at (850) 410-1020.

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.