Baby Girl Is Found in Bag on Roadside

A newborn girl left to die in a shopping bag near a teen-age partying area was discovered through “an act of God” and will be placed in foster care, officials said.

“This kid was hidden and left there to die,” Detective Michael Dirickson of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said Friday. “It was only an act of God that it was discovered. We’re investigating it as attempted murder.”

The infant was recovering in a hospital after being found Wednesday in 42-degree weather by a California highway patrolman, who spotted the bag along a roadside and thought it might contain beer bottles, officials said.

“She’s either the last miracle of 1987 or the first of 1988,” Dirickson said.

Although her name is officially Jane Doe, the girl has been dubbed “Miraculous Mary” by nurses at Sequoia Hospital. On the tag listing the mother’s name, the nurses have written “all the nurses on the floor.”

The chestnut-haired infant was “doing fine” Friday and is “pink, alert and happy,” hospital spokeswoman Sheryl Greenspan said.

Greenspan said she has received 50 telephone calls offering adoption, foster care, money and gifts.

The baby is to be placed in foster care Monday or Tuesday, she said.

The infant was near death from exposure in the chilly temperatures when she was found tucked into the shopping bag and hidden near a retaining wall, deputies said.