WILMINGTON, N.C. — The mother of a newborn baby that was found in a trash can behind a North Carolina church last Thursday evening has been arrested.
Maryuri Estefany Calix-Macedo, 21, has been charged with first-degree attempted murder after her infant son was discovered in a black garbage bag inside of a trash can at Christ Community Church in Wilmington.
According to Port City Daily, Calix-Macedo was taken to the New Hanover Regional Medical Center to be assessed, and then transferred to the New Hanover County Jail, where she is being held on $800,000 secured bond.
As previously reported, on Thursday evening, a woman walking her dog heard a baby crying while passing by the church, and upon investigation, found the newborn — umbilical cord and all — inside of a black garbage bag in a trash can.
She began calling out for help and also dialed 911. One of the women who came to the scene was Tamara Austin, who followed instructions from the operator to take the umbilical cord off the child’s neck. Another neighbor brought a towel for the baby.
“I just picked the baby up and held him and just talked to him,” Austin told WWAY-TV. “He was breathing. I cleared out his airways. He was breathing fine. He actually cried, and at one point, even grabbed my finger.”
While the two women waited for paramedics to arrive, they sang to the child and told him that God has a plan for his life.
“I was praying,” Austin told WECT-TV. “And she started singing ‘Jesus Loves Me’, and I just chimed in with her and [was singing] it with her. I told him, ‘Someone here wants you and God has a purpose for you, so hang in there.’”
She said that the infant latched on to her pinky finger as she spoke to him.
The baby was transported to the hospital and is stated to be doing well.
Another newborn was also discovered abandoned in New Bern on Friday after an infant was found wrapped in a t-shirt and left unattended on a porch in the Craven Terrace neighborhood.
The baby was transported to CarolinaEast Medical Center and is stated to be in good health.
Police are still looking for the mother in that case.
“What we are doing as a police department is now canvassing the neighborhood and checking surveillance cameras or cameras in the neighborhood, while also talking to anyone who might have any information,” Police Chief Toussaint Summers told local television station WCTI. “We are working with the Department of Social Services and hospital staff to further identify the infant.”
North Carolina has a “Safe Surrender Law” or “Infant Homicide Protection Act”, passed in 2001, that allows mothers to surrender their baby to a police officer, health care provider or social worker within seven days of the child’s birth without penalty. The mother is not required to provide any self-identifying information.
The organization A Child’s Hope also advises mothers that adoption is an option, even before the baby is born.
“While N.C. safe haven laws require that your baby be less than seven days old when you relinquish him or her, it is never too late to choose adoption for your baby, whether it’s during your pregnancy, right after you’ve given birth or months after your baby has been born,” it explains on its website.
Psalm 27:10 says, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”
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