Newborn abandoned

MARYSVILLE – A newborn baby boy was found abandoned, alive, after having apparently been tossed over a fence surrounding a holding pond in Marysville late Saturday.

Neighbors in the 7900 block of 61st Place NE heard the baby’s cries shortly after 11 p.m. One of the neighbors climbed over the chain-link fence surrounding the pond and rescued the boy. He was found in a dry area between the pond and the fence.

The baby was taken to Providence Medical Center in Everett. His condition was not released Sunday.

The boy had a mild case of hypothermia when taken to the hospital, said Scott Goodale, a battalion chief for the Marysville Fire Department. “There appeared to be no other trauma to him,” he said.

A teenage girl who lives across the cul-de-sac from the pond was taken into custody and is being investigated for abandonment of a dependent person, Marysville police Cmdr. Steve Winters said. The girl’s age was not released.

Police followed a trail of blood droplets from the holding pond fence back across the cul-de-sac to the girl’s home, Winters said.

The baby’s umbilical cord was still attached, neighbors said.

Police believe the girl is the boy’s mother but don’t have medical confirmation, Winters said. She did not confess to police, he said.

Medics examined her at Marysville police headquarters and took her to an undisclosed hospital for treatment early Sunday, Winters said.

Brenda Wentland, who wrapped the baby in a blanket until medics arrived, said she called the hospital later and was told the baby was about one hour old when found.

Belinda Wright, who lives next to the pond, was putting one of her kids to bed Saturday when she heard the cries through an open window in her home.

Expecting a baby of her own in two weeks, she told her husband, Frank, about the cries.

“He just thought I was being a pregnant, sensitive wife,” she said.

The two went outside. Mike Wentland, Brenda’s husband, heard the cries, too, but at first they sounded like young raccoons he’d heard before, he said.

“Belinda was pointing, saying it was a baby,” Mike Wentland said. “There was something in her voice that made me run and get my shoes, get my flashlight.”

He stood on a rock and shone the light over the fence. He saw a dark bag “and there was this little hand going like this,” he said, making a motion with his hand. “Waving.”

He climbed the fence and found the boy in a black garbage bag at the bottom of a slope. A swath of weeds between the fence and the baby, about as wide as the baby is long, was slightly matted down, he said. The bag was loose around the baby.

“It looked like they tossed it over the fence and it rolled down the hill,” Wentland said. “It’s lucky the baby landed on its back rather than its face” after coming to a stop, he said.

The baby’s cries stopped when Wentland picked him up. Wentland handed the baby over the fence to Frank Wright, and the neighbors took him to the Wentlands’ house to wrap him up and call 911. He appeared cold but otherwise OK, they said.

“He was perfect,” Belinda Wright said. “Lots of hair.”

Medics arrived within five minutes, the Wentlands said.

The Wrights have lived in the new neighborhood at the eastern edge of Marysville for about six weeks, the Wentlands less than a month. Neither family knew the girl in custody or her family.

Cmdr. Winters praised the neighbors for their quick action.

Without their help, “that child might very well have not made it through the evening,” Winters said. “That’s the kind of involvement we need from people.”