Newborn Abandoned in Florida Woods Adopted Nearly One Year Later

baby
PolkCoSheriff/X
Katherine Hamilton

A baby girl who was abandoned in Mulberry, Florida, shortly after her birth in January has been adopted nearly a year later, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announced on Wednesday. 

“We are thrilled to share with you these photos from this morning of this precious angel with her new mom and dad, along with PCSO’s Detective Green and Sgt. Ryan,” Judd said in a post to X, which includes a picture of the baby girl and her new family. “Mom & Dad wish to keep their names from being published, but they allowed us to share these photos with everyone who followed this child’s story and prayed for her well-being.”

The baby girl was discovered in the woods near the Regal Loop Mobile Home Park around 1:47 a.m. on January 28 after a nearby resident heard her crying. Judd said at the time that he had named the baby Angel Grace because “she’s as beautiful as an angel” and “it is by the grace of God that she is not dead.”

When deputies found her on the 50-degree night, she was around 6.5 pounds, wrapped in a blanket, and still had an umbilical cord and placenta attached. Law enforcement officers estimated they found her roughly an hour after her birth.

Judd said that “despite an extensive effort by PCSO detectives,” the baby’s birth mother has never been located or identified.

The sheriff previously noted that Florida’s Safe Haven law was created to avoid this kind of abandonment.

“You can literally walk up, hand that baby to a firefighter, and drive off, and never disclose who you are, and there’s no criminal liability to that,” he said. 

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.

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