"Newborn Jane" VICK-FISHER - Hours old (2010) - Hampton VA

Grace Moye and Anita Overman were outside Friday afternoon on Rendon Drive when a man yelled: "There is a baby in the woods in a plastic bag."
The two women say they could hear the baby crying as they followed him into a wooded backyard of a one-story house in the first block of Rendon Drive. He led them to a white plastic bag that was knotted. Moye said the man ripped the bag open and found a newborn baby girl.
Police are trying to determine who left the newborn girl who was found shortly after 12 p.m. The baby did not have any life-threatening injuries, according to Cpl. Allison Quinones, a spokeswoman for the Hampton police department. The child was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Police are trying to determine exactly how long the infant was in the woods, but estimate it was no more than a day, Quinones said. Police described the bag the baby was found in as a trash bag. No one had been arrested or charged as of Friday night.
The man who heard the baby crying was one of three contractors who were working on a neighboring house. According to Moye and Overman, the baby was lying about 5 ft away from the edge of the home's backyard in brush.
"It was a brand new baby," said Moye, who said the baby looked fully developed. "It still had the umbilical cord and the placenta was all over her. He had a head full of hair."
Moye said the baby was inside a white plastic bag that was tied in knots and was wrapped in two towels. Overman and Moye said when they reached the newborn the plastic bag moved up and down as she struggled to breath inside.
"You could tell all the air was out the bag," Overman said. "I was just praying. I was calling on Jesus to bless this baby."
Overman and Moye said they didn't neighbors being pregnant.
"If they didn't want the baby they could have given it up for adoption," said neighbor Stephen Louther. "Just to throw a baby in the woods like that is not right. It was probably some young girl who was scared to tell her parents she was pregnant."
Under Virginia's Safe Haven law, a baby up to 14 days old can be left with an employee at any hospital emergency room or an emergency medical rescue squad in Virginia. If the baby has no signs of "intentional abuse, no name or other information is required," according to, http://www.safehaven.tv. Once the baby is taken to a hospital the child will be examined and given medical treatment, if needed. Social Services Administration will then take custody through Child Protective Services and place the child with an appropriate caregiver, according to the website.
"I just hope they find the mother and find out why she did this," said Sandra Green, who leaves nearby. "You don't know why this mother did what she did. Who are we to pass judgment on why this mother did what she did?"
Police are asking anyone who may know of a woman who was in her last stage of pregnancy and who would have recently given birth to call CRIME LINE at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

The baby found abandoned in a plastic bag on Friday is doing well but still in the hospital. Hampton police spokeswoman Allison Quinones said that the baby was still being treated by doctors but was in good condition.

As of yet, the baby girl does not have a name, Quinones said. "Child Protective Services will make a determination about who the baby will be placed with," she explained.

Quinones said she did not know if it was possible if it would be given to the family of the baby.


The baby girl's mother, Kimberly Vick Fisher,30, has been charged with attempted murder in connection with the case.

They call her baby girl - not much is known about the newborn found Friday in a kitchen trash bag in the woods behind Rendon Drive.

The Department of Human Services in Hampton says the baby should be released from the hospital in five days.

"It would be immediate when she is discharged from the hospital, we will already know where she is going, the family will probably already be there to pick her up," said Human Services Director, Wanda Rogers.

Rogers says her department was awarded temporary custody this morning in court. They are currently in the process of placing the baby.

Hampton has 100 approved foster parents. About 25 of them say they will take newborns.

"Certainly we want the baby to be placed with the most appropriate caretakers and from that point forward we will monitor the baby and provide services to the baby and family," Rogers said.

Hampton police say the baby's mother is 30-year-old Kimberly Vick Fisher.

She is charged with attempted murder after a contractor doing work near her home found the little girl.

In an exclusive interview, the contractor told NewsChannel 3 he followed the baby's cries into the woods.

He ripped open the bag and saw a newborn baby - umbilical cord still attached.

Police say she lives in the same area where the newborn was found.

Child Protective Services says they have not ruled out Fisher's family to take the baby.

"It is going to to depend on just what we find out about the biological family and their ability to come forward," Rogers said.

So far Rogers says no one from the family has expressed interest to her department. She says some have already started calling her about adopting the baby girl.

A Hampton mother who admitted to abandoning her newborn baby in the woods was sentenced on Monday.



Kimberly
Vick Fisher will spend two and a half years in prison for charges of
attempted murder and child abuse, according to information from the
Hampton Circuit Court. Fisher will also spend five years on supervised
probation.
According to court records, Fisher gave birth
secretly. She then put her newborn baby in a trash bag and left her in
the woods last September. The baby's umbilical cord was still attached.
A contractor heard some noise and found the baby girl alive in the trash bag.
According
to a search warrant, detectives removed items such as toiletries,
sponges, and gloves covered in blood, from Fisher's home.
Fisher pleaded guilty to attempted murder and child abuse in May 2011.
Virginia is a Safe Haven state. Mothers can drop off newborns at hospitals and rescue squads with no questions asked.


http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/hampton/mother-sentenced-for-abandoning-baby