Newton man finds baby abandoned on doorstep

PHOTOS BY JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBEDetective Sergeant George McMains of the Newton Police Department removed the bag, blanket, and pillow from the front of the house where the baby was left, after displaying them for the media. (PHOTOS BY JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

NEWTON - An 81-year-old man stepped outside to pick up his mail yesterday and was stunned to find a newborn baby girl, tucked in a tote bag with a pillow, a blanket, and a note asking that the baby be cared for, police said.

"It wasn't what he was expecting," Detective Nils Anderson of the Newton Police Department said outside John Tuckerman's three-story clapboard house on Moulton Street. "He saw the baby was sleeping peacefully, he touched it on the cheek, and her eyes opened. Cute little baby."

Neighbors were also stunned by the discovery. Police canvassed the area in hopes of locating the baby's mother or father, but said they had not come up with any leads. Officers asked for the public's help in tracking down the parents.

Corey Welford, a spokesman for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr., said the office's child abuse unit is working on the case with Newton police.

"It's much too early to speculate on what, if any, charges we would consider bringing until we know all of the circumstances of how this happened," Welford said in a telephone interview. "We are just happy that the baby appears to be in good health and hope that anyone with information would be comfortable speaking with us."

The baby, who weighed 6.4 pounds and has curly, dark hair, is believed to be African-American or Hispanic. She was hours old and still had the umbilical cord attached, officials said.

Tuckerman described finding the baby to WHDH-TV.

"I went closer, and I saw the face, and I thought, 'Who was this?' Well, the baby wasn't moving in the bag, so I reached down with my finger, and I touched the cheek and it was still warm. And I said, 'Well, I have to do something.' So we called 911 right away."

Lieutenant Kevin Fitzgerald of the Newton Fire Department was among the first to arrive.

"She did cry, and we cleaned her up a little bit," Fitzgerald said in a telephone interview. "She was holding my hand, and we were giving her oxygen, and she held onto the tube. She was a beautiful baby."

Emergency workers took the girl to Newton-Wellesley Hospital, where doctors ran tests.

"She is in perfect health, in excellent condition, and was well taken care of," said Brian O'Dea, a hospital spokesman. "She had been cleaned and dried prior to being left," he said.

He encouraged the mother to seek medical attention.

Police speculated that the person who abandoned the baby may have chosen Moulton Street, in Newton Lower Falls because it is one of the first residential streets off Route 128 South.

"It's the last thing you would think would happen on the quietest street in the whole wide world," said Andrea Trachtenberg, a Moulton Street resident.

Police said Tuckerman had no connection to the baby, who they believe was born between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. He discovered the baby about noon, when temperatures were in the upper 60s.

Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Children and Families, said the agency would go to court today to seek legal responsibility for the girl. If the mother or father cannot be located, the child could be put up for adoption, she said.

Massachusetts' so-called Baby Safe Haven law allows parents to surrender an infant seven days or younger at a police station, fire station, or hospital. Goodwin said that since the law's passage in 2004, seven babies have been surrendered under the law, and four have been abandoned.

Goodwin said yesterday's abandonment underscores the work the state needs to do make people aware of the law.

Representative Barry R. Finegold, an Andover Democrat who helped sponsor the law, said lawmakers recently approved $25,000 to publicize the program, which he said is working.

"Clearly, this woman did not want to harm this child, and I think if she would have known of the Baby Safe Haven law, she would have potentially brought it to" a legally sanctioned location, Finegold said.

Globe correspondent Jeannie Nuss contributed to this report.