Woman Gives Birth in Hospital, Disappears

A woman checked into a Lancaster hospital under an apparently phony identity Friday, gave birth to a healthy boy and fled several hours later, abandoning the infant, sheriff’s deputies said.

The woman, who gave her name as Janice Baker, went into labor about 7:20 a.m., only 20 minutes after she was admitted to Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Ed Grantham said.

After the birth of her son, the woman ate lunch and disappeared shortly after noon, leaving the boy and an unpaid bill, hospital spokeswoman June Snow said.

The woman apparently walked out wearing her hospital gown because she left her street clothes behind, deputies said.

The woman, who gave her age as 31, provided a local address to a hospital admissions clerk that turned out to be a vacant lot, Grantham said. The name she gave was believed to be false because she spelled it one way to the clerk and signed it another way, he said.

The woman told officials she intended to pay her bill in cash.

The baby, weighing 7 1/2 pounds and 19 inches long, will be placed in the care of the county Department of Children’s Services, Snow said.

Neither the mother nor the child appeared to be suffering from any drug-related conditions, authorities said.

“The mother seemed as normal as any other pregnant female,” Grantham said.

The child was still at the hospital late Friday. He was sleeping well and had a normal appetite, Snow said.

The Sheriff’s Department declined to release a description of the woman. “It’s a real sketchy case right now. . . . We have no idea about her motives,” Grantham said.

If found, the woman would face charges of child abandonment, he said.