Update 3:
Update 2:
So it was a tooth! News segment at the link.
Possible sketch of the parents:
Update:
So adorable
Link.
So sad. It is one thing not to want the baby, but to leave it there is a different story. I hope they find the mother/people behind it.
Update:
Her parents have not been found (not that they deserve her), and the family that she has been placed with wants to adopt her.
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Baby-Chloe-moves-closer-to-adoption-4540388.php
I really hope that all goes well for this little one.
Update 2:
So it was a tooth! News segment at the link.
An abandoned infant's baby tooth may be the key to finding her parents.
Baby Chloe, discovered in a plastic Walmart bag just an hour after her birth with her umbilical cord still attached, has a rare early tooth that may help authorities flesh out the newborn's family history.
The natal tooth, seen in only one of every 2,000 infants, is the latest development in the hunt for Chloe's parents since a woman walking her dog discovered the baby outside an apartment complex in Cypress, Tex., on Feb. 19, ABC News reported.
Houston police have also turned to world-famous forensic sketch artist Lois Gibson to draw up composite sketches of what Chloe's mom and dad would probably look like.
Gibson, named "Most Successful Forensic Artist" by Guinness World Records, made the renderings by doing an age progression on Chloe's appearance.
The pastel drawings show a man and woman in their early 20s with several of Chloe's distinguishing features, like her gray eyes, her dark brown hair and her signature smile.
"The people would recognize that smile," Gibson told ABC's "Good Morning America." "It's a ready smile, and then all I had to do was put teeth."
This is reportedly the first time law enforcement officials have tried such a technique. But some forensic art experts have raised their eyebrows at the drawings' precision.
"I doubt [the sketches] are going to be accurate at all … not even in the ballpark of likeness," Steve Loftin, head of the forensic imaging unit at the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told ABC News.
"Trying to add years to a baby's face without any reference at all — we could not do that and be sure of any accuracy," he said.
Gibson, who has never done an age progression on a child as young as Chloe, acknowledged that random factors, like weight gain, acne and dyed hair, could affect the renderings' exactness.
"It might just look half like one and half like the other," Gibson told the Houston Chronicle. "I think I have a 50 per cent chance of the sketches looking more like one than the other."
Authorities hope either Chloe's parents or other relatives come forward to claim the child. Determining the parents' identities has been especially difficult for authorities because it appears the mother never visited doctors for prenatal care.
Chloe's parents will face charges if found.
The tiny bundle of joy, named by her rescuers at Texas Children's Hospital, remains in the care of Child Protective Services. But there is no doubt she will soon "be placed in a loving home," Harris County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Christina Garza told ABC News.
"There is no shortage of people who want her."
Possible sketch of the parents:
Update:
Found in a plastic Walmart shopping bag after being abandoned just an hour after her birth, the little girl named Chloe by the staff at Texas Children’s Hospital was deemed healthy enough on Monday discharged, and even smiled for pictures.
So adorable
Link.
A Houston woman was walking her dogs when she stumbled upon a ghastly sight: A newborn baby, with 3 inches of her umbilical cord still attached, lay abandoned in a plastic Walmart bag.
The unidentified lady's dog sniffed out the unclothed but clean infant between a tree and a bush at the Stonegate Villas Apartments around 7 p.m. Tuesday, reported The Houston Chronicle.
"If it had not of been for the resident that came out to walk her dogs, that child may have laid there all night, possibly would've died," said Sgt. Gordon Trott of the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
The baby was rushed to the Texas Children's Hospital, where she is currently in "good condition."
Jenn Jacome, a spokesperson for the hospital, told the Daily News that the baby's vital signs - such as pulse, temperature and blood pressure - are stable and within regular limits, she is conscious and comfortable and her chance of recovery is between good and excellent.
"The child could not have been out there very long," said Trott. "The child had a normal body temperature."
Child Protective Services took custody of the 4-pound, 12-ounce baby, who will be placed in a foster home after recovery, according to Gwen Carter, a CPS spokesperson.
Carter added that authorities have launched an investigation into the incident. But they will not have the help of surveillance footage.
"As far as we know, there are not any security cameras back there to capture anything on video," said Trott.
Police were confused as to why anyone would abandon a baby, because anyone can drop off a newborn at a fire station or hospital without answering any questions or facing legal charges under Texas law, reported ABC affiliate KSAT.
So sad. It is one thing not to want the baby, but to leave it there is a different story. I hope they find the mother/people behind it.