Newborn Baby Beaten and Left in the Cold to Die

But in the brief time she drew breath in this world, someone beat that newborn and left her outside in the cold of a Chicago night, in a patch of grass near a high-rise apartment Dumpster on Chicago’s North Side.

Found just before midnight on Wednesday and rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition, the infant didn’t survive.

An autopsy conducted Thursday night by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office shows the infant died of multiple blunt force injuries. Police said there was evidence of embryonic fluid at the scene, indicating the baby was a newborn.

The newborn died shortly after arriving at Weiss Memorial Hospital — just minutes away from the spot where the baby was discovered.

A man visiting the apartment building to see his girlfriend saw the baby, at first thinking someone left a doll outside. When he realized the bundle on the grassy patch outside the high-rise was a baby, and saw the umbilical cord, he picked up the infant, ran into the lobby and found security.

She was found in the 800 block of West Eastwood in the Uptown community, according to police. A major storm with high winds, rain and cold temperatures blasted into the Chicago area Wednesday night. NBC Chicago reports that officers were taking photographs at the scene in the early morning hours.

“The hospital is right here, so if you was going to put the baby down, if you walked this far to put the baby here, another block wouldn’t make too much difference,” neighbor Alice Nelson told CBS Chicago. “That’s why, if I seen her, I would have picked her up, then carried her in the lobby. I would have took her there, and called the police.”

Surveillance cameras are mounted at the apartment building and a nearby school, CBS reports, but it’s not known whether whoever left the baby was recorded.

“I’m astounded,” Niakema Thomas told NBC Chicago. “My daughter goes here to daycare, it’s a nice facility... and I would never think that someone would actually leave their baby here.”

On Nov. 3, a newborn baby, umbilical cord still attached, was abandoned in Ukrainian Village on the steps of Nazareth Family Center on the Northwest Side. A cleaning woman found the baby at 3 a.m. on her way to work. The family center is on the campus of Presence St. Mary’s Medical Center.

That baby is in good condition.

The Illinois Safe Haven Law allows parents to hand a baby, 30 days or younger, to a staff member at any hospital, police station, fire station or any emergency medical services provider, no questions asked.