CHICAGO — A newborn girl was severely beaten before being abandoned in the grass just a block away from a North Side hospital Wednesday night, Cook County medical examiner's office said.
Police said the girl was still alive when she was found, but she didn't survive after being rushed to the hospital. The autopsy later revealed that she had died of "multiple blunt force trauma," considered a homicide, county officials said.
The girl was found outside in the 800 block of West Eastwood Avenue at 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, said Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago Police spokesman.
According to ABC 7, there was evidence of "embryonic" fluid nearby. She was found in the grassy area between Weiss Memorial Hospital and Uplift High Shool. There is also a daycare nearby.
According to NBC Chicago, a man was heading towards to the East Shores Apartment when he thought he saw a naked baby lying in the grass. He told security guards he thought his mind was playing tricks on him, but police found the child alive and in critical condition.
Thursday morning, lights from the high school illuminated the area, as Uptown resident Doug Ballard used police tape to fasten a diaper and stuffed animals to a tree near the scene. Ballard heard about the incident early Thursday and went door-to-door in his building asking for stuffed animals to create the memorial, he said.
"It's just a horrible thing. There's a lot of stuff you see going on and it's just sad," Ballard said. "You never know what people are thinking. Who knows it could've been a teenager or it could've been a 50-year-old woman."
The vicinity to the hospital coupled with Ballard not having his own children only makes the incident more confusing, he said.
"The poor thing," Ballard said. "People don't think it touches you as much when you don't have kids. But it touches you so much more some when you don't have the chance to have kids."
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