AVA ARIE GOENS - 6 Months - Chicago IL

Police are trying to find a young woman who said she’d be “right
back” but abandoned a 6-month old infant in a stroller at a South Side
police station Friday afternoon. Chicago police are attempting to identify this baby girl, believed to be
about 6 months old, who was abandoned at a South Side police station
Friday afternoon.
Police said two
witnesses saw a woman who appeared to be 18 to 24, dressed in a black
jacket and top, dark blue skinny jeans, a black skull cap and wearing
boots with white fluffy fur trim come briefly inside with the stroller.
She mumbled something to the effect of that she’d forgotten something
and that she’d be “right back” but she never returned, according to
police.
The baby is 25-inches long and weighs 17 pounds.
She is Hispanic, has brown eyes and black hair, pierced ears and a
light complexion. She was found in a black and silver "Baby
Trend Expedition" stroller with a multi-colored Winnie the Pooh
blanket. She was wearing a pink jacket with butterflies and a jumper
with "ABC" printed on it.The girl has two teeth and pierced ears with
diamond earrings.The Chicago Police missing persons unit is
trying to estimate the child’s age and work backwards to develop a
possible date of birth and contact area hospitals to try and find the
child’s birth mother, according to police.By Illinois' Safe
Haven law, an unharmed newborn up to 30 days old may be "safely
relinquished to staff at hospitals, police or staffed fire stations, or
emergency care facilities, no questions asked," but there are
repercussions for abandoning a child after that time period has lapsed.
The Calumet Area Special Victims Unit is investigating.

I'd rather see a mother take this action rather than harm the baby so I hope they don't rave on about repercussions too much. At least she has done the right thing compared to many other tragic cases IMO.

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Chicago police are asking for help as they try to find the woman who
abandoned a 6month-old baby at a Chicago police station.
Area Two detectives are investigating. The baby girl is safe and doing well,
according to police who cared for her before turning her over to the custody of DCFS.
Saturday evening, investigators continued to try to track down the woman who
abandoned the girl in their care Friday afternoon. The child is
described as Hispanic with black hair and brown eyes. She weighs
approximately 17 lbs. and has both of her ears pierced. The
woman who left her at the Grand Crossing district station is believed
to be between 18 and 24 years old. According to authorities, she went
into the police station at 7th Street and Cottage Grove, mumbled
something to the effect that she had forgotten something and would be
right back. She never returned. "After a few minutes, they
realized the baby had been left behind. That's not a problem. We're
glad she did that. She's a beautiful baby, and we've already had a ton
of people calling to ask if it's possible to adopt. We don't deal in
adoptions, but we would like to meet up with the mother and find out if
she did this of her own will," said Lt. Laurel Bresnahan of the Chicago
Police Department. "The first thing we think about is, is the
baby safe? Even though this is outside the parameters of the Safe Haven
Law, we're thankful the parents tried to follow the spirit of the law,
if not the letter, and that this baby is safe," the Save Abandoned
Babies Foundation's Jessica Martinez said. The Safe Haven Law
says children 30 days old and younger can be left at hospitals, police
or fire stations without fear of prosecution. The infant girl
is in a black and silver baby trend Expedition stroller. She was
wearing a pink jacket with butterfly, covered by a Winnie the Pooh
blanket. Police say she was dressed for the cold weather and showed no signs of neglect.
Officers investigating the case are from the special victims unit and say
they cannot be certain who the woman is and whether it was the
parents' choice to leave the child behind. Anyone who can help identify the child
or the woman who left her at the police station is asked to call Chicago police.

kiwimom wrote:I'd rather see a mother take this action rather than harm the baby so I hope they don't rave on about repercussions too much. At least she has done the right thing compared to many other tragic cases IMO.

Totally agree Kiwi, maybe she has saved this baby's life by leaving it at a police station. You just never know what these mom's and their boyfriends are up to. She is a beautiful baby.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/baby.jane.doe.2.1401434.html

Mom of baby left at police station arrested

January 5, 2010 11:09 PM

16 Comments
A woman suspected of leaving
her 8-month-old baby at a South
Side police station on New Year's Day was charged with misdemeanor
child endangerment, Chicago
police said late Tuesday.Police had requested a felony charge,
but the state's attorney's office decided on the lesser charge,
apparently in recognition that Matisha Goens had sought a safe haven for
her child.Under state law, unharmed infants up to seven days old
may be brought to hospitals, police, fire stations or emergency care
facilities with no questions asked. Goens' daughter was considerably
older.

Goens, 28, was arrested about 6 p.m. Monday at her home in the 7000
block of South Crandon Avenue, on a old warrant issued when she missed a
court date Oct. 21, according to police.





Goens is suspected of leaving
her daughter at the Grand Crossing District Police Station, 7040 S.
Cottage Grove Ave., about 3:30 p.m. New Year's Day.
But she was being held by police on a $5,000 warrant in a child
abandonment charge stemming from a Sept. 30, 2009, incident in which
officers found the same baby alone in a car.
In that incident, police were called to a Secretary of State facility
in the 9900 block of South King Drive to investigate a complaint of a
baby left alone in a car, according to a police report. After cruising
the parking lot, police found the 5-month-old girl strapped in a car
seat in the front seat of a 2007 silver Chevrolet Cobalt.

Goens was then charged with misdemeanor endangering the life and
health of a child and released on her own recognizance, court records
show. But a warrant for her arrest with a $5,000 bail attached was
issued Oct. 21 after she failed to appear for a hearing at Domestic
Violence Court, 555 W. Harrison St.Friday afternoon, the baby
girl was left in the Grand Crossing station after a woman police believe
was Goens entered the station with the girl in a stroller, said she
would return soon, then left quickly, police said.
The baby girl, who was wearing a pink jacket with butterflies and a
jumper with "ABC" on it and was covered partly with a Winnie the Pooh
blanket, was taken to Comer Children's Hospital to be examined, but did
not appear to have any medical problems.
Goens is scheduled to appear in court on the warrant for the missed
court date at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
For more details about Friday's incident and a photo of the baby,
read an earlier story HERE.http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/01/mom-of-baby-left-at-police-station-arrested-on-warrant.html

Abandoned babies: Illinois' extension of 'safe haven' law divides child welfare experts

Legal period for leaving baby at designated places rises to 1 month from
seven days; mom charged recently with leaving 8-month-old girl at police
station


January
18, 2010|By Bonnie Miller Rubin, Tribune reporter
In her blue, jail-issue uniform, Matisha Goens, 28, appeared in Domestic
Violence Court last week, her head down and her voice barely audible.Her
alleged crime? Leaving her 8-month-old daughter at a South Side police
station, wearing a pink jacket and wrapped in a Winnie the Pooh blanket.
Officers found the baby New Year's Day, taking in all the activity from
her stroller.Though the girl appeared well cared for, she is
beyond the age in which parents can relinquish babies anonymously and
without fear of prosecution, causing some to wish for more discretion
and others saying that support, not legislation, is a better way to
address abandoned children.On Jan. 4, Goens was arrested at her Chicago home in the 7000 block
of South Crandon Avenue and charged with misdemeanor child neglect. In
September, Goens was picked up on a similar charge when police allegedly
found the same girl -- now with her father -- alone in a car at a
Department of Motor Vehicles facility."On one hand, this child is
well past" the legal limit of one month, said police Lt. Laurel
Bresnahan, part of a Special Victims Unit on the case. "On the other
hand, we see kids who have been hideously abused ... and this is exactly
what you want a parent to do."But where to draw the line? Do you
praise or punish a mother who shows that the all-consuming task of
parenthood is beyond her capabilities? And does charging Goens with a
crime undermine the goal of the Safe Haven Law, which is to prevent
babies from being abandoned on a doorstep or a trash bin?"She had
doubts during her pregnancy," said Goens' mother, Delores Scott Goens.
"She didn't know if she could do this ... and talked about adoption. But
I thought things would get better once the baby was born."The
joy that usually accompanies a new arrival didn't happen for Matisha
Goens, an unemployed pharmacy technician described by her mother as
"loving, giving and respectful" until her mid-20s. That's when the young
woman started exhibiting signs of mental illness. She had mood swings
and delusions, which became darker and more frequent during her
pregnancy, her mom said.After Ava Arie was born, Matisha Goens
grew increasingly isolated from her family, refusing to answer the phone
or the door at her South Shore apartment."I feared for both my
daughter and my granddaughter," her mom said.http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-01-18/news/1001170418_1_safe-haven-law-babies-abandoned