ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Search teams sloshed through the mud Monday in a drained pond near the Willow Bend Apartments looking for any evidence of the baby.
The search had to be very hands-on because police said the thick muck prevents the use of cadaver dogs. The mud would trap the animals and they would be confused by all the odors churned up, investigators said.
The search for Baby Willow started Feb. 15 after police responded to Willow Bend Apartments on a report of a human placenta found in the parking lot.
Police believe that Susan Richardson, 30, gave birth to the baby girl in the lot and then discarded her.
She was given the name Baby Willow after the apartment complex where she was born.
Richardson told investigators that she did not want the baby and dropped her off at a random apartment, but has not given them much to go on beyond that.
She was arrested and charged with neglect and unlawful abandonment and remains in the Orange County Jail in lieu of bonds totaling $50,000.
Police have searched the area around the Silver Star Road apartment complex with K-9 teams, looked in every dumpster and sent robotic cameras into the sewers, but have not found the baby.
Orlando police dive crews searched the pond Friday morning without success.
The pond was then drained over the course of several days.
Police have not reported finding anything in the pond relating to Baby Willow or her mother.
Cox Media Group
