After A Baby Was Left To Die In The Woods In A Plastic Bag, Authorities Seek Her Family

Authorities in Georgia are asking for the public’s help in tracking down the mother of a baby who was found wrapped in a plastic bag and abandoned in the woods earlier this month.

Recently released body cam footage shows the moment that deputies with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office discovered the child on the night of June 6. Now, three weeks after the shocking discovery, authorities are still searching for answers regarding who left the baby in the woods and why.

Sheriff Ron Freeman appeared on Fox’s “Outnumbered” on Wednesday where he offered more information on “Baby India,” as well as a public plea that someone who knows the child’s mother will come forward.

“Somebody knows someone who was pregnant. This was a near full-term or full-term baby. They’re not pregnant now, and there’s no child. That’s kind of inexplicable,” Freeman said. “So that’s what we’re hoping: somebody will give us that lead that will help us identify the mother so we can find out, one, who abandoned this child, and why they did so.”

Authorities responded to the area where the child was found at around 10 p.m. that night after a family in a nearby home heard what could have been the cries of an animal or baby coming from the woods and called 911.

“We heard it from our house. My kids said ‘It’s a baby,’ I said ‘It’s an animal,’” a man said to deputies in footage released by police.

Freeman on Wednesday called the discovery “miraculous but horrific.” Upon finding the baby, he said deputies administered first aid and, along with firefighters and EMTs, rushed the infant to the hospital.

The child, who was named “Baby India” at the hospital, was found “within a couple hours” of being born, and is now “doing fantastic,” Freeman said.

Since the footage was made public, the sheriff’s department has received calls from more than a thousand people who are interested in adopting the child, according to police. Freeman went on to say that the Department of Family and Children’s Services is currently responsible for Baby India, and have placed the child in a “great” foster home for the time being, where she is doing “exceptionally well.”

"She's got almost 500 deputy sheriffs who are her surrogate fathers now,” he said. “We’re gonna do whatever it takes to make sure she does well, and we’re gonna do whatever it takes to make sure that we find out who abandoned this child, and importantly, why.”

“We don’t know who, and we don’t know why yet, so we need the public’s help with that,” he continued.

Authorities have urged anyone with any knowledge regarding Baby India to call their tip line at 770-888-7308, where information can be shared anonymously.