Teen-Ager Admits Abandoning Infant

A National City woman came forward Friday to say she is the mother of a newborn baby found rolled in a blanket beside a National City Pizza Hut on June 29.

Jennifer Lynn Huggins, 18, an employee of the Pizza Hut, was booked into County Jail at Las Colinas on charges of felony child abuse and felony child endangerment Friday afternoon. She had turned herself in at the National City police station at 2:30 p.m.

“She said she was unable to cope with the child and had not told anyone of the pregnancy,” said Olivia Castellanos, a National City police dispatcher.

According to police, her mother, who had noticed a sudden weight loss by her daughter and had read about the case, confronted her Friday and persuaded her to come forward.

The case of “Baby Girl Doe,” as the authorities had dubbed her, had drawn the attention of the area news media last week. Earlier Friday, the county Department of Social Services had held a press conference displaying the baby, in hopes of finding her mother.

Huggins gave birth at home, apparently without assistance, authorities said. An hour later, at 4:30 p.m., the baby was found outside the Pizza Hut restaurant in the 2000 block of Highland Avenue, where Huggins worked, said National City Police Sgt. Carey Sullivan. The police had had no luck finding the mother, said Sullivan.

Although slightly dehydrated when found, the baby is healthy and eating well, said Heidi Staples, the county social worker supervising the case. The infant has been living with foster parents for the past week.

The baby’s case is now in juvenile court, which will probably take a year to decide who gets custody of the girl, said Carol Baenziger, a Department of Social Services spokeswoman.

“Sometimes people panic when birth comes. They don’t know what to do, and they just drop the baby and leave,” said Raymond Fellers, deputy director of the department.

Sullivan said National City has had two or three similar cases lately, and the parents of those children were located within a week or two.