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- Yolo County sheriff’s deputies found an infant with their parents under a freeway.
- Detectives found the parents living with their newborn baby in unsafe conditions.
- Officials placed the child in protective custody and arrested the parents.
Sheriff’s detectives placed a newborn infant in protective custody last week after the child was found living with their parents in unsafe conditions under an Interstate 5 overpass in Yolo County.
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On Sept. 9, deputies responded soon after receiving to a tip that a man and woman were living with their newborn baby under the I-5 freeway overpass near County Road 19A, the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday in a news release. The location is just north of Woodland.
Deputies arrived and found a 48-year-old father and a 29-year-old mother living with their 7-day-old baby in a makeshift tent directly beneath the Interstate 5 overpass, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The child was moved away from the area to be examined by medics and later taken by ambulance to Woodland Memorial Hospital. Sheriff’s officials said the infant was later taken to a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit in Sacramento County for further medical evaluation.
Sheriff’s detectives launched an investigation into the child’s welfare, and officials with Child Welfare Services also were asked to respond and participate in the investigation.
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Sheriff’s officials said detectives found the parents and their baby were living in hazardous conditions, which included numerous suspected methamphetamine smoking pipes, accumulated trash, rotten food, sleeping on the dirt floor without bedding, vomit on a mattress and feces inside a baby carrier.
Detectives also found the mother’s placenta and umbilical cord in a nearby garbage bag, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The tent in which they were living was directly beneath I-5, where freeway traffic created extremely loud noise.
In the news release, sheriff’s officials said “the parents acknowledged the dangers posed to their newborn,” and the parents said they had been waiting to take the child to a hospital for an examination at a later date.
The detectives placed the infant in protective custody due to the immediate safety concerns, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The child’s parents were arrested on suspicion of child endangerment and booked at the Yolo County Jail.
Read more Infant in protective custody, found with parents under Yolo County I-5 overpass