A 9-year-old girl in northwest Indiana saved an abandoned infant after thinking she found a piglet in her backyard.
Elysia Laub alerted her mom after discovering the baby on Monday morning. The infant was found in a rural area near a creek in their backyard of White Oak Avenue.
“At first I thought my brain was playing tricks on my ears, and I looked over and I just saw these legs kicking and I thought, ‘Is that a pig?’ ” Elysia Laub said.
She thought her family’s pigs had a baby, according to The Washington Post.
“I knew it was alive and I knew we had something,” she said to NBC. “I could not second-guess myself. I knew we had to get help.”
The girl brought her mom, Heidi Laub, to between a field and a row of trees. There, Heidi Laub found a newborn baby wrapped in a black towel instead of a piglet, according to NBC.
“I thought it was a robotic doll. Then I ran to the baby and scooped it up and I said, ‘Elysia run to the house and call 911 as soon as possible. I got to the house and we put one of our baby blankets around her.”
She said the infant’s placenta and umbilical cord were still attached and infested with maggots. The newborn was also naked, crying, and sunburned.
Lake County Sheriff’s Department officers arrived at the location after receiving the call, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said in a news conference.
They believe the newborn is less than a day old and was at that location for no more than a day.
The infant was brought to St. Anthony’s Hospital for evaluation and treatment. She suffered from sun exposure as temperatures in the area reached 90 degrees on Monday. But otherwise, is a “healthy young girl,” Buncich said, the NY Daily News reported.
However, she could’ve died if she was left there for a few more hours. Thus, Buncich nicknamed the brownish-blond haired baby “Miracle Baby Jane Doe.” Meanwhile, Elysia Laub is her “guardian angel.”
Elysia thank God you are as observant as you are .. you surely saved #InfantJaneDoes life!! https://t.co/YK21hcHnSy
— Kelly Ryan (@kellyryanradio) July 12, 2016
According to the Chicago Tribune, the newborn’s umbilical cord and placenta were sent for forensic analysis to determine her age.
Although there was an extensive search with K-9 units and a helicopter for the mother, she has yet to be found.
Even so, Indiana has a Safe Haven Law that enables people to anonymously give up their unwanted infant without fear of arrest or prosecution.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Department Report-A-Crime Hotline at 800-750-2746. All calls will remain anonymous.
