A newborn boy died after being wrapped in a duffel bag and left in snow on the steps of a fire station in Chicago.
Police are investigating who placed the baby outside Near North Side fire station in New Orleans St in freezing conditions on Saturday.
Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford told the Chicago Sun-Times fire crews discovered the infant’s lifeless body at around 5am when they went outside to shovel snow.
“They were in and out so much that morning that no one heard the doorbell,” Mr Langford said.
Under Illinois state law, a child under 30 days old can be left at a safe haven site as long as they are handed off in person.
The fire house where the boy was left is designated as a safe haven, but it is not manned 24 hours a day.
Mr Langford said they were trying to educate the public that infants must be physically handed to another person at safe havens.
“Ringing a bell is not making contact. You have to physically see someone and hand the child over,” Mr Langford told the Sun-Times.
Autopsy results were inconclusive about the child’s cause of death, and it’s unclear whether he was still alive when he was left at the fire station.
Since 1999, all 50 states have enacted safe haven laws which allow parents to drop their babies at designated locations such as police stations and hospitals with no questions asked.
Figures from the Save Abandoned Baby Foundation show 4,505 babies have been handed over since the state laws were established
“Safe haven laws generally allow the parent, or an agent of the parent, to remain anonymous and to be shielded from criminal liability and prosecution for child endangerment, abandonment, or neglect in exchange for surrendering the baby to a safe haven,” according to the federal government’s Child Welfare Information Gateway site.
