A woman suspected of leaving an "hours old" baby girl in a trash bin in a coastal South Carolina community turned herself in shortly after the infant was rescued by a teenager Thursday, according to police.
Austin Detray heard a strange noise coming from the bin Thursday afternoon in Fairway Village, a Horry County neighborhood about 13 miles south of Myrtle Beach.
"I heard it and I instantly knew it was a baby and she was crying, so I jumped in the garbage can, or the dumpster, and I started moving bags away," Detray told NBC affiliate WMBF.
"I got two or three bags down and saw the baby's face pressed against the bag," he said.
Detray said the bag was tied shut. "I ripped it open and the umbilical cord was still there, the placenta, it was just born," he said.
Detray’s mother, Jessica Detray, immediately called emergency responders who brought the 8 pound 6 ounce baby girl to a nearby hospital, the station reported.
"Hospital staff estimated the baby was only hours old," Horry County Police Department Lt. Raul Denis told NBC News. He said the baby was "healthy" Friday and in the custody of the social services department.
The baby’s mother was hospitalized after she turned herself in Thursday, Denis said. She will not be identified until she is charged, he said.
SOCIAL
— Elisha Fieldstadt