Baby abandoned in Lahey lot

By Barry Scanlon, Lowell Sun, June 30, 1987 — A three-day-old infant was found abandoned in a car in the parking lot of Lahey Clinic last night, police said. The infant girl was taken to the clinic’s emergency room and was later transported to Boston Children’s Hospital early this morning.

Inspector Charles Chicarello, who was investigating the incident, said the baby was in “excellent condition” today. No marks or bruises were found on the baby, he said. The mother of the baby, if found, may face criminal charges for abandoning the infant, he said.

A note was left with the baby that might explain why she was abandoned.

A Woburn woman, identified as Carol Donnelly, found the baby “in perfect shape” about 11 p.m. after leaving the clinic where she had taken her daughter for treatment, police said.

Donnelly, who had left a car door unlocked when she entered the clinic, found the baby wrapped in a yellow and white blanket in a wicker-style basket in the back seat of her car, Chicarello said.

The shaken woman alerted Lahey Clinic security, who took the infant into the clinic’s emergency room. “She was upset that someone could abandon a baby,” Chicarello said of Donnelly.

After an examination by Dr. Eleanor Hobbs, the baby was taken to Boston. Chicarello said identifying the baby may be “difficult” if the baby wasn’t born in a hospital, due to a lack of birth records. “If the baby was born in a home, it’s going to be a little more difficult,” he said.

Police are calling area hospitals today in hopes of identifying the baby.

Lowell Sun, July 6, 1987 — Foster parents are caring for the abandoned baby girl found last Tuesday in the parking lot of Lahey Clinic. The healthy eight-pound baby was placed in a foster home Friday, said a spokesperson at Children’s Hospital in Boston, where the infant had been taken for observation.

Meanwhile, Burlington police are continuing to search for the baby’s mother. Police said the only lead thus far has been a security guard’s vague description of two “teenage” women — one heavyset with long blond hair and the other with brown hair — who drove out of the hospital parking lot in a black Oldsmobile shortly before the baby was discovered.

Sgt. Walter Belvis said a state police lab analysis found long blond hair and brown hair on a blanket and shirt found with the baby.