Police seek answers after baby girl found dead at New York recycling center 

Police in Utica, New York, are asking the public for help identifying a baby girl found dead at a recycling center last week.

The baby was estimated to be between 1 and 2 weeks old. New York’s safe haven law allows parents to surrender babies up to 30 days old without facing abandonment charges if they follow the law’s requirements.

Workers found the girl among recyclables at the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority on Sewage Plant Road. They stopped the equipment and called police, the Observer-Dispatch reported.

“This baby girl deserves proper burial and an identity,” Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said at a press conference Oct. 15.

Investigators don’t know who the baby is or how she arrived at the plant. Her cause of death has not been made public.

The facility receives material from five counties. Police are checking delivery schedules as part of their investigation. The department told PEOPLE it is working with the FBI to try to identify the girl through DNA testing.

Authorities have not identified the mother as a suspect. Oneida County District Attorney Todd Carville told reporters that officials have not decided whether to file charges.

Williams asked the mother to come forward.

“She may have a story to tell, but we need to know it,” he said.

New York’s Abandoned Infant Protection Act allows parents who cannot care for a newborn to leave the child with someone who can keep the baby safe.

Parents can remain anonymous. The law protects them from abandonment and child endangerment charges when its requirements are met, Nassau County’s Department of Social Services explains.

The baby must be no older than 30 days. A parent must leave the child with a suitable person or in a safe place and promptly notify someone where the baby was left. Hospitals and staffed police and fire stations are examples of places where parents can surrender a baby.

Safe haven laws date to 1999, when Texas became the first state to adopt one. Then-Gov. George W. Bush signed the measure, known as the Baby Moses law.

By 2008, all 50 states had safe haven laws, though age limits and surrender requirements vary.

States have since expanded the time parents have to surrender their children safely or added more places where they can do so.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a law in March extending his state’s surrender period from 72 hours to 30 days, as Heartlander News previously reported.

Georgia also extended its surrender period this year, from 30 days to 45 days. Its new law allows baby boxes at certain emergency facilities with medical staff on duty around the clock.

The boxes allow parents to surrender babies without a face-to-face handoff. They regulate temperature and alert staff when someone places a child inside.

Tennessee expanded its list of surrender sites to include ambulance stations staffed around the clock, Heartlander News reported in May.

Parents who need help finding a safe place for their baby can call or text the National Safe Haven Alliance at 888-510-2229. Its hotline operates around the clock.

Anyone with information about the Utica girl can call the police department’s Major Crimes Unit at 315-223-3556.

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/OHSWA)