Twins Abandoned at Chicago Church

Dec. 22, 2005 — -- It was a calm Wednesday night at North Austin Lutheran Church on Chicago's West Side when custodian Kenny Green heard baby noises and spotted a car seat.

Wrapped in a blanket, and apparently in good health, were two babies, who doctors said were no more than 2 days old. Their umbilical cords were still attached.

The healthy babies -- a 6-pound, 6-ounce boy and a 5-pound girl -- were named Baby Joseph and Baby Mary by the staff at Oak Park's West Suburban Medical Center where they were taken.

Green said whoever left Mary and Joseph there must have been familiar with the layout of the church because it took quite a bit of navigating to get them to the spot where they were dropped off.

"I wish this hadn't happened, but at least they didn't put them out in the cold. That's good enough," he said.

Under the Illinois Safe Haven law, established in 2001, it's illegal to abandon a baby at a church. People who leave babies at a fire or police station or a hospital do not face repercussions.

"You can bet that I'll be saying something about Joseph and Mary during my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day sermons," said the Rev. Thetis Cromie of North Austin Lutheran.

The Department of Children and Family Services said it had no leads to the identity of the parents. An investigation is under way to find them.

Church members said the situation was bittersweet with Christmas just days away.

"Just felt like it was something, a gift from God, but whoever it was that did it, she didn't have to leave them," Felicia Morgan, a church member, told WLS in Chicago.

Since the Safe Haven law went into effect, 19 babies have been legally abandoned, 41 have been illegally abandoned, and only half of them have survived. But in the case of these two babies, they were left in a warm place, and it appeared they also were fed.