A fetus was left in a bag at an SC hospital. Months later, police search for parents
It’s been six months since staff at Pelham Medical Center in Greer found a fetus in a bag outside the emergency room entrance, yet Greer police remain stymied on who was the person caught on surveillance video placing the bag by the door.
“The video is not great quality and was not able to be cleaned up to the point of deciphering the license plate,” said Greer Police Sgt. Chris Forrester.
They do know the fetus was a boy, about 20 weeks along, he said.
That is considered half term and not survivable outside the womb. The Guinness Book of World Records says a Wisconsin boy was the most premature baby in the world, born at just over 23 weeks. He celebrated his first birthday in June.
Surveillance video at Pelham Medical Center showed the person who put the bag outside the door was the driver of a four-door car with tinted windows. It happened just after midnight on Saturday, April 3.
Forrester said Greer Police used “advanced investigative methods” and received some tips on the case, but neither has led them to the driver.
He said investigators are waiting for results from DNA testing, which can take months.
In April, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger told WSPA-TV that the case falls outside the parameters of Daniel’s Law, officially the Safe Haven for Abandoned Babies Act, which makes it OK to leave an unharmed baby up to 60 days old at a hospital, law enforcement agency, fire station, emergency medical services station, or a house of worship when staffed.
The law is named for a baby nurses called Daniel, who was found in a landfill.
As of July, five babies have been relinquished in South Carolina through this law this year and 49 since the law was enacted in 2009, according to the state Department of Social Services.
Forrester said the case of the Pelham fetus remains open, and he asked for tips to be sent to him at cforrester@cityofgreer.org, or call (864) 416-6618.
