BLACKSBURG, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina sheriff’s office is searching for whoever abandoned a newborn baby girl on the front porch of a home.
The infant is in state custody and being treated at a neonatal intensive care unit, Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Mueller said. She was left in front of a Blacksburg home Saturday, according to an incident report obtained by news outlets.
The homeowner told deputies someone rang his doorbell and he looked down to see a baby wrapped in a blanket. He took the child to the hospital.
The girl weighed under 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms), according to the report, and medical officials think she was born prematurely. The child’s exact age wasn’t given.
Laws allowing an unharmed infant up to 2-months-old to be left in the care of a hospital, fire station or emergency medical services without fear of prosecution don’t apply in this case because the child was left at a residence, Mueller said.
“It’s very rare that a baby gets left like this at a house,” he added. “It’s very rare.”
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