FAIRBANKS, Alaska — State police in Alaska said they are looking for the parents of a newborn baby who was found abandoned, left in a box with a note on New Year’s Eve.
The temperature at the time was about 12 below zero, ABC News reported.
The note read “Please help me!!!,” the “Today” show reported. “I was born today on December 31, 2021 (at) 6 a.m. I was born 12 weeks premature. My mom was 28 weeks when she had me. My parents and grandparents don’t have food or money to raise me. They NEVER wanted to do this to me.”
“My mom is so sad to do this. Please take care of me and find me a LOVING FAMILY. My parents are begging whoever finds me. My name is Teshawn,” the letter also read.
A video showing the baby was shared on social media by a Fairbanks woman, but the video has been removed. Several media outlets, however, had screengrabs from the video before it was taken down.
The woman, who said she found the baby and posted the video said, “Clearly someone in our community felt so lost and hopeless that they probably made the hardest choice of their lives to leave that innocent life on the side of the road with nothing but some blankets and a name. But she named him,” the “Today” show reported.
State troopers called the case one of child endangerment but said the baby was alive and appeared to have been abandoned not long before he was found. He was taken to an area hospital and was in good health, state police said in a news release.
When asked about the letter, state police spokesperson Tim DeSpain would not confirm for ABC News if it was authentic.
Alaska has a safe-haven law where parents can legally leave an infant in the custody of a law enforcement officer, firefighter or doctor, among others if a parent cannot care for the child, ABC News reported.