Nearly four years after a newborn was found in a plastic bag in rural Georgia woods, deputies have arrested a woman they believe is the child’s biological mother and charged her with attempted murder.
Karima Jiwani, 40, was taken into custody by one of the deputies who had helped save the newborn nearly four years ago.
She was charged with criminal attempted murder, aggravated assault, reckless abandonment, first-degree cruelty to children and several other charges, according to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities in Georgia located the child in Cumming, Georgia, following an emergency call on June 6, 2019. Baby India — a name given to her by authorities — was placed with a foster home approved by the Georgia Department of Family and Children’s Services.
At the time, the sheriff’s office released video of deputies finding the newborn in hopes it would lead to information about the baby’s identity.
Karima Jiwani, 40, was arrested Thursday for abandoning her infant daughter in Georgia woods in 2019
The video showed a deputy tearing open a plastic bag to reveal that the baby girl was still covered in fluid from birth with the umbilical cord attached. She was then taken to a local hospital.
Sheriff Ron Freeman called the baby’s survival miraculous: “I called it divine intervention then and I truly believe it, still do.”
“If you look at all that had to happen for this little girl to survive, for alert people to hear a sound in the woods that they thought was a wild animal, but two teenage girls who couldn’t let it go because they thought it sounded like a baby crying,” Freeman said Friday.
The teens convinced their father to go into the woods in the middle of the night to try to determine the source of the sound.
The big breakthrough in the long-standing case came 10 months ago when the sheriff’s office was able to identify Baby India’s father using family DNA. The biological father was reportedly unaware of the pregnancy and is not being prosecuted.
After thousands of hours of investigation, Jiwani was arrested Thursday and subsequently denied bail.
“I told you four years ago that we would find them and they would have my handcuffs on, and they were,” Freeman said at a news conference.
“How a parent, and I happen to be one, can do something so callous is both incomprehensible to all of us and infuriating,” he continued.
“I’m amazed at any reasoning that could be out there and how anyone could have the ability to leave their own child to die.”
Sheriff Ron Freeman said the arrest came after thousands of man-hours from his deputies
Baby India was found in a plastic bag in the woods of Georgia, miraculously still alive after being abandoned hours after birth
10 months ago, India’s biological father was identified through DNA testing. His positive identification led authorities to the child’s mother
Freeman said there is evidence that Jiwani gave birth in her car and drove around for “a long time” before dropping the child off in the woods.
“This child was tied in a plastic bag and thrown into the woods like a garbage bag. I can’t understand that, I really wish I could. I struggle, but I don’t know how you can understand that. It’s literally one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen,” he said.
The sheriff’s office also claims that Jiwani has a “history of concealed and concealed pregnancies and surprise births” and had known about her pregnancy for “quite a long time and went through extremes trying to hide it.”
According to Freeman, baby India is currently happy and healthy.
Sheriff Freeman said baby India is now happy and thriving
At a court hearing on Saturday morning, Jiwani’s lawyer told the court that the woman suffered from postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, just like “millions” of other women across the country.
He also pointed out that Jiwani has no criminal record and is a homeowner and stay-at-home mother of three children.
District Attorney Penny Penn rebuked the allegation, saying postpartum depression doesn’t set in until a long time after a child is born and that Jiwani is accused of dumping the newborn within hours of her birth.
Penn added that Jiwani admitted to authorities that she planned to kill her child in an interview following her arrest.
Jiwani’s next hearing is scheduled for June 13.