ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The city of Orlando sent remote robotic cameras into sewers to look for any sign of a newborn girl, whose mother police said discarded her shortly after her birth.
The child was born in the parking lot of Willow Bend Apartments on Monday, police said. Police named her Baby Willow, after the apartment complex.
The infant’s mother, Susan Richardson, 30, told police she didn’t want the child and left it at a random apartment, but couldn’t remember which one.
She was arrested and charged with neglect and unlawful abandonment.
Johnnie Bryant, Richardson's boyfriend, said they planned on giving the baby to an ex-girlfriend and have given other children away to family members.
"She walks through here every day and she cuts behind this here warehouse to go to the 7-Eleven," neighbor Odanell Lewis said.
Lewis wondered if authorities have checked the path she walked to the store yet.
Extensive searches of the area around the Silver Star Road apartment complex have not turned up any trace of the missing baby.
City workers were sending the remote cameras down manholes in the area of Willow Bend Apartments.
Some neighbors said they want dive teams to search a pond in the area.
The pond is a 10-minute walk from where Baby Willow was born.
Earlier this week, police took away dumpsters at the complex for crime scene technicians to inspect.
Neighbors left balloons and teddy bears along the fence at the apartment complex to show their support in the effort to find Baby Willow.
Bryant said Richardson’s mental health issues may be to blame for her lack of cooperation in the case.
Richardson remains in jail on $50,000 bond.
Cox Media Group
