Couple finds abandoned newborn with her umbilical chord attached after noticing a blanket with two little feet moving
A Texas couple took action after spotting an abandoned newborn with her umbilical cord still attached while walking on a hiking trail Saturday morning.
Daniela Fedele said she and her husband were strolling along Casa Martin Drive in Katy, Texas, when they saw a towel on the ground.
Her three-year-old daughter started riding her bike toward it — before Fedele said she realized something was moving underneath.
‘I saw two little feet moving and then my husband was standing right behind me with the dogs and I shouted at my husband and I thought, “Oh my God, a baby, a baby,”‘ Fedele told KHOU.
‘And then my husband [says] like, “Call 911, call 911,” and that’s what we did.”
Daniela Fedele told how she and her husband found a newborn baby on the side of a hiking trail on Saturday morning
Harris County sheriff’s deputies said they received the call around 9 a.m. and rushed to the scene of the accident.
Meanwhile, Fedele and her husband tried to protect the child – and their quick thinking was praised by local police for saving the child’s life.
Surveillance footage shows the couple with their dogs running toward the baby and Fedele’s husband grabbing him before rushing to get the child out of the sun.
“When my husband went ahead and picked up the baby, he found the closest one, like a tree, right there at the house down the street. He found a little bit of shade,” Fedele said.
They then waited for Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies to arrive on the scene and hand over the child, telling officers they saw a man running away.
The baby girl was then transported to a local hospital where she was listed in good condition. according to KHO.
The two immediately called 911 and held the child under a tree for shade
They turned the newborn over to authorities and she was taken to a local hospital
Authorities said Fedele and her husband may have saved the child from death, describing them as a “blessing” in her time of need.
“The two witnesses happily walking along the trail with their daughter and their dogs was a blessing,” said Sgt. Juan Garcia, who works in the Child Abuse Unit.
“The baby was a newborn… still had a fresh placenta on the baby, so he was just born this morning,” he noted.
Fedele says she can’t get the image out of her mind, wondering how someone could abandon their baby.
“I was shocked, angry and upset,” she said of finding the newborn, adding that there are options for new parents who don’t want to raise a baby.
“You can drop it off at a fire station, a police station, a hospital, I don’t know… but don’t leave the baby behind.”
Police say cases of people abandoning babies are rare and are now looking for a man they believe dumped the baby.
He is described as a young Hispanic or white male, with a slim build and fair complexion. He was wearing a black shirt and possibly gray pants at the time of the abandonment.