Deputies search for parents of abandoned newborn
Deputies in Orange County are investigating a case involving an abandoned newborn boy.
According to the sheriff's office, the child was discovered on the back porch of an apartment at the Buena Vista Point Apartments, just north of State Road 535 and Interstate 4, around 8:40 a.m. Friday.
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Authorities said a man getting off work from a local hotel came home to his apartment, and that as the 35-year-old resident walked to his back porch, he heard some kind of whimpering cry.
The man saw a child wrapped in a brown blanket on his wicker loveseat. The man’s female roommate called 911.
The child, who did have diaper on, was just hours old, according to a sheriff’s office spokesperson.
“We are so grateful that this child is alive just being left on the porch,” said sheriff’s office spokesperson Jane Watrel. “No knock on the door, no doorbell ring. It is just so fortunate this young man was walking by, heard the whimper and investigated.”
Now, detectives want the parents to come forward.
Florida has a Safe Haven law, which allows parents to leave a child at fire station or hospital with no questions asked.
If you have any information, please call the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies are going door to door, canvassing the neighborhood to find the parents or see whether anyone knows anything.
“We’re in a very hot time in Florida and children overheat very quickly,” Watrel said.
Check back for updates on this breaking news story.