Unnamed girl - 8 months - / Charged: Mother, Jennifer Cutruzzula - Wilmerding PA

Mom seeking new start left baby in woods


Feb 28, 2013 5:44 PM EST

WILMERDING, Pa. (AP) - Police say a western Pennsylvania mother seeking a "fresh start" abandoned her 8-month-old daughter in the woods with a bottle of milk.

Police say 24-year-old Jennifer Cutruzzula, of Wilmerding, walked into the woods Wednesday night and dropped off the baby. A neighbor who saw Curuzzula leave the woods without the child found the baby crawling on her stomach along a muddy hillside and alerted authorities.

Temperatures were in the mid-30s with light rain falling.

Police say Cutruzzula told them she was having difficulty at home and wanted "a fresh start."

KDKA-TV reports that the baby was taken to a hospital and is doing fine.

Cutruzzula is charged with endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering. She's being held on $50,000 bond.

Court papers didn't list an attorney

http://www.fox8live.com/story/21429681/mom-seeking-new-start-left-baby-in-woods

Why didn't she contact an adoption agency?

Birth control should be free for idiots like this. I'll gladly pay higher taxes to keep them from reproducing.

Sad, I would have gladly taken a little angel. At least she's alive. Others don't end up that lucky. William

Wall mother charged with leaving infant alone in woods

By Matthew Santoni
Published: Thursday, February 28, 2013, 7:57 a.m.
Updated 10 hours ago

A watchful neighbor may have saved an infant girl from dying on a wet, muddy hillside when the baby's mother attempted to abandon her in Wall, neighbors and police said.

East McKeesport police said neighbors saw Jennifer Lynn Cutruzzula, 24, carry her daughter, 8 months, up a utility right of way into woods where Irwin Street and Center Avenue meet, then leave without her shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday.

According to a criminal complaint, one neighbor went into the woods and found the baby, clad only in a one-piece outfit, crawling on her stomach along the wet hillside, and took her inside while his mother called 911.

“I'm just glad my neighbors were here to see what happened,” said Christopher DeBone, 44, whose house was on the corner closest to the path leading through bare trees and scrubby underbrush up the hillside.

“It's all muddy and unpleasant up there, and the rest is all jagger bushes. ... If they didn't see her going up, that baby could have been dying in the woods, and nobody would have been the wiser,” DeBone said.

The complaint said Cutruzzula told police that she was having family issues and “just needed a fresh start” and thought she was doing the right thing.

Authorities took the baby to Children's Hospital in Lawrenceville, where she was treated and released to the custody of Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families.

Cutruzzula was arraigned on charges of reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of children and will undergo a psychological evaluation before other charges will be considered, said District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.

A judge set bail at $50,000, and she remained in custody Thursday afternoon, according to court records. Her relatives could not be reached.

Stephanie Rayzer, a former neighbor, said Cutruzzula told her that she was victimized as a child and needed mental help. She has two other daughters living with their father, neighbors said.

“I just wish she'd brought the baby to me,” said Rayzer, 45, of Turtle Creek. “I'd tried to get her to get help. ... I don't just want society to condemn her, given all she's been through.”

Zappala said a similar case happened in 2007, when Nyia Page, 23 months, of Braddock froze to death on an abandoned playground where her father, William Lorenzo Page, left her wearing only a sweater and a diaper in the middle of the night. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, making false reports to police and aggravated indecent assault.

Court records show police cited Cutruzzula with shoplifting from the North Versailles Wal-Mart store twice in November and once in August. The August shoplifting charge and one of the November charges were dropped.

She was scheduled for a March 13 trial before District Judge Robert Barner for the second November shoplifting case and a charge of defiant trespass issued the same day.

Zappala emphasized that parents who do not believe they can care for a child can safely surrender children less than a month old at any hospital under the Safe Haven law. As long as there are no signs of abuse, parents are immune from prosecution in such cases, he said.

“It's as simple as walking into a hospital and saying, ‘I want you to take my child,'” Zappala said.

Parents who need help but have older children not covered under the Safe Haven law can contact child protective services or other nonprofits such as Family Resources, said Department of Human Services spokesman Mark Bertolet.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3570444-74/alone-area-baby#ixzz2MItMgun7