17-Year-Old Faces Child Abandonment Charge

A 17-year-old girl from Mexico faces a charge of child abandonment after a newborn baby boy was found in a black plastic garbage bag beside a Marysville retention pond, apparently after being tossed over a fence.

The girl is being held in the Denny Juvenile Justice Center in Everett on $50,000 bail.

Authorities said she was staying with a sister who lives near the retention pond where the baby was found Saturday night by a neighbor.

The baby boy appeared to be just hours old with an umbilical cord still attached and blood on his body. He is recovering at an Everett hospital, officials said.

According to authorities, a woman heard the child's cries through an open window on Saturday shortly before 11 p.m. She and several neighbors searched the area.

A man eventually found the child wrapped in a garbage bag behind a locked fence surrounding a retaining pond.

"The bag was around its head. The only thing sticking out when I got there was its hand. Its little arm just waving, like 'come get me' type thing, you know," said Mike Wentland, the man who discovered the infant.

Police said the baby was taken to Providence Everett Medical Center. Hospital officials declined to release any information about the infant, citing privacy laws.

Neighbors said police had traced the baby to a home in the neighborhood and searched it Sunday.

Belinda Wright, the woman who heard the child's cries, is nine months' pregnant and due in two weeks. She said she couldn't believe what she and her neighbors found.

"It was a baby boy, a full term baby boy, beautiful little baby boy. It had a set of lungs like you wouldn't believe," said Wright.

In Washington state, within 72 hours of birth, newborns can be left at any hospital emergency room or a fire station where someone is on duty.

As long as the baby isn't harmed, mothers can remain anonymous and won't face any criminal charges.

The hot line number for mothers in crisis is 1-877-440-2229.