A woman walking her dog in a North Carolina neighborhood found a crying newborn inside of a trash can. Cynthia Burton of Wilmington said she walks her dog, Flounder, several times a day but decided to take a different path on Thursday. During the walk, she heard a noise coming from a garbage bin behind a nearby church. “I heard a cry, a loud cry and then I kept hearing it,” she said.
Burton opened the bin and found a newborn baby boy with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. “He would not have survived if someone hadn’t been walking that way because he was in the trash bin at the bottom,” Burton said. “He was in a trash bag, and the ties were tight. I couldn’t open them. I had to rip the trash liner apart.” Burton ran to a nearby apartment complex screaming for help. A neighbor heard her and ran to assist.
“I saw the baby, and I just knew I had to take action. I didn’t even wait for a second. I knew I had to take action because the baby was so bloody, it looked like it had just been born,” Burton said. She said it was a mixture of divine intervention and being aware of her surroundings that saved the newborn’s life. Wilmington police later arrested the infant's mother, 21-year-old Maryuri Estefany Calix-Macedo, on a charge of attempted first-degree murder.
Police said the baby boy is healthy and doing well.
WECT / CNN
(photo Getty Images)