hno:
another one
:sad3:
Autopsy set on infant found in Lake Pontchartrain
by Mary Sparacello, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday February 10, 2009, 2:23 PM
A woman threw a newborn girl into Lake Pontchartrain this afternoon, then drove away, Kenner police said. The child was soon found dead as police hunted for the woman and her car: a bright red Pontiac Grand Am with a temporary license tag in the window.
Witnesses told investigators that they saw the woman "calmly" throw something into the water at Laketown, arouind the Williams Boulevard boat launch, then drive off in the car at about 1:50 p.m.
The naked infant, her umbilical cord still attached to her navel, was soon recovered from 18 inches of water by an officer who waded a few feet into the lake to retrieve the body. She appeared to have been carried to full term, Police Chief Steve Caraway said.
"Nothing could be so bad in your life to lead you to do something like this," Caraway said.
It was not immediately known whether the baby died before or after she was tossed into the water. An autopsy is scheduled Wednesday.
While investigators worked at the scene, the wind gusted and rain drizzled intermittently from a gray sky. The tiny body lay wrapped in an East Jefferson General Hospital ambulance sheet on the ground. Nearby were found a towel and a plastic bag, presumably left behind by the woman.
Elliot Lew, a Kenner Recreation Department employee, said he was working in Laketown when a man carrying a long pipe walked by, headed to the water. The man asked for help in using the pipe to retrieve what he said was a body floating just offshore.
Lew said he walked out on breakwater rocks about five feet from the water's edge, saw "two little legs" then called police from his wireless phone.
A white bath towel, stained with what appeared to be blood, was found about 20 feet away on the ground by a garbage can at the Laketown gazebo, Lew said.
The woman who fled was said to be 5 foot, 3 inches tall; thin; young; and wearing jeans and a pullover shirt. Caraway said police don't know if she is the child's mother.
Officers soon stopped at least two suspect vehicles: at Interstate 10 and Williams Boulevard, and West Metairie Avenue at Clay Street. Neither was the right one, however.
The child's death came despite Louisiana's "safe haven" law, approved by the Legislature in 2000 in hopes of stopping new mothers from abandoning unwanted infants to die. The law lets parents anonymously leave newborns with certain medical or law enforcement personnel and avoid criminal charges.
In the first seven years, however, the law was invoked only six times.
. . . . . . .
:sad3:
Autopsy set on infant found in Lake Pontchartrain
by Mary Sparacello, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday February 10, 2009, 2:23 PM
A woman threw a newborn girl into Lake Pontchartrain this afternoon, then drove away, Kenner police said. The child was soon found dead as police hunted for the woman and her car: a bright red Pontiac Grand Am with a temporary license tag in the window.
Witnesses told investigators that they saw the woman "calmly" throw something into the water at Laketown, arouind the Williams Boulevard boat launch, then drive off in the car at about 1:50 p.m.
The naked infant, her umbilical cord still attached to her navel, was soon recovered from 18 inches of water by an officer who waded a few feet into the lake to retrieve the body. She appeared to have been carried to full term, Police Chief Steve Caraway said.
"Nothing could be so bad in your life to lead you to do something like this," Caraway said.
It was not immediately known whether the baby died before or after she was tossed into the water. An autopsy is scheduled Wednesday.
While investigators worked at the scene, the wind gusted and rain drizzled intermittently from a gray sky. The tiny body lay wrapped in an East Jefferson General Hospital ambulance sheet on the ground. Nearby were found a towel and a plastic bag, presumably left behind by the woman.
Elliot Lew, a Kenner Recreation Department employee, said he was working in Laketown when a man carrying a long pipe walked by, headed to the water. The man asked for help in using the pipe to retrieve what he said was a body floating just offshore.
Lew said he walked out on breakwater rocks about five feet from the water's edge, saw "two little legs" then called police from his wireless phone.
A white bath towel, stained with what appeared to be blood, was found about 20 feet away on the ground by a garbage can at the Laketown gazebo, Lew said.
The woman who fled was said to be 5 foot, 3 inches tall; thin; young; and wearing jeans and a pullover shirt. Caraway said police don't know if she is the child's mother.
Officers soon stopped at least two suspect vehicles: at Interstate 10 and Williams Boulevard, and West Metairie Avenue at Clay Street. Neither was the right one, however.
The child's death came despite Louisiana's "safe haven" law, approved by the Legislature in 2000 in hopes of stopping new mothers from abandoning unwanted infants to die. The law lets parents anonymously leave newborns with certain medical or law enforcement personnel and avoid criminal charges.
In the first seven years, however, the law was invoked only six times.
. . . . . . .
