Family Believes Newborn Found Atop Garbage Bin May Belong to Missing 19-Year-Old Woman

A file photo of a baby's feet (Christiana Bella/Pixabay)

A missing 19-year-old woman may possibly be the mother of a newborn baby found abandoned on top a garbage can in a Chicago alley on May 7, according to the woman’s family.

Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui was last seen after leaving a high school in Pilsen on April 23. At the time she was 9-months pregnant and was expected to give birth on May 5, reported ABC 7. Her husband and father of their 3-year-old son believes he was the last person who spoke to her on the day she disappeared.

Her family is now calling for a DNA test to identify whether Ochoa-Uriostegui is the mother of the baby.

The hours-old baby was rescued by a mother and daughter who heard the newborn crying on Tuesday afternoon around 4 p.m. The baby boy was found in a canvas shopping bag with his umbilical cord still attached, reported ABC 13.

The good Samaritans then rushed the boy to a nearby firehouse. There, paramedics performed CPR and revived the little boy.

“The baby was cold as concrete,”Patrick Fitzmaurice, Chicago Fire Department paramedic field chief, told reporters during a news conference, according to the news station. “I wasn’t too optimistic, but like I said to the lieutenant, I wasn’t ready to lose this one today, and neither were they and they worked very hard.”

“This poor kid was minutes away from having no chance at all,” Fitzmaurice added.

After fire department officials revived the boy, he was taken to the Norwegian American Hospital in critical condition.

Later on May 7, officials said the baby was in a stable condition and was “crying and kicking.”

“The newborn found in an alley on north Keystone has been upgraded to stable from very critical. The little guy is crying and kicking and about to be transferred to LCH on Chicago Ave. thanks to CFD paramedics and ED crew at Norwegian!” the Chicago Fire Media wrote on Twitter.

He was then transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital for further treatment.

Dawn Geras, who lobbied to pass Illinois’ Safe Haven Law in 2001, told Chicago Sun-Times that the baby was the first to be found illegally abandoned in Illinois this year.

Under the city’s law, a baby 30 days or younger may be left with a staff member at a hospital, fire, or police station with no questions asked, according to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

“We don’t judge. Take him to a firehouse. Leave the baby there. Give the kid a chance,” Fitzmaurice said.

Officials have not released any details about the mother or reason for the baby’s abandonment.