New born left on porch

Newborn left on Near East Side porch
Monday, September 14, 2009 3:09 AM
By Jim Woods and Mark Ferenchik

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Franklin County Children Services will seek an emergency court order this morning for custody of an infant boy whom a woman found on her porch Saturday while she was watching the Ohio State-Southern California football game.

Children Services is just beginning its investigation, agency spokeswoman Doris Calloway Moore said. A woman yesterday called police to say she was the mother and "expressed some regret," Moore said.

Children Services will perform a DNA test to confirm whether she is the mother, Moore said. Until then, the agency plans to place the child in foster care after receiving custody, she said.

Police are also investigating.

Story continues below
Advertisement

The 9-pound, 13-ounce child was at Nationwide Children's Hospital last night in good condition, hospital spokeswoman Pam Barber said.

The red-haired white child wearing a Winnie the Pooh outfit and wrapped in a blanket was found about 10 p.m. Saturday on a porch at 809 Kelton Ave. on the Near East Side. The umbilical cord was still attached and had been cut and tied, Moore said.

Kiara Townsend, 20, said she and her boyfriend, Otese Vivens Sr., were watching the football game when the doorbell rang.

She said she saw nothing out the peephole, but when she and Vivens opened the door, they found the baby.

"At first, it looked like he wasn't breathing because his face was blue," Townsend said. "You could tell it was newborn because he still had afterbirth in his hair."

Townsend said she picked up the baby and called 911. Townsend, who has an 8-month-old boy, said she thinks it's sad that someone would leave a baby like that.

She later called Nationwide Children's and was comforted to learn that the baby is doing well.

Columbus police told her they didn't know the baby's name. Townsend and Vivens suggested Jaylen Tressel. The middle name would be in honor of Ohio State's football coach, since the baby was found during the game.

Under the state's "Safe Havens" law, birth parents now have up to 30 days to anonymously surrender an infant to police, firefighters, emergency medical workers or hospitals without fear of prosecution.

The Public Children Services Association of Ohio said 70 Ohio infants had been surrendered under the law through 2008.