Newborn left in duffle bag outside Trenton home — help find mom

TRENTON — Police are trying to find the mother of an infant left outside a home on Sunday.

Residents at a home on the west side of Trenton heard a noise coming from the front porch around noon and found an infant wrapped in a blanket inside a duffle bag, Trenton Police Lt. David Cruz told New Jersey 101.5.

The black or Hispanic infant was taken to a hospital, where he was estimated to be 24 to 48 hours old and in good health, Cruz said.

"The baby is doing good. Looks like he's going to be a healthy baby boy," Cruz said.

The Division of Child Protection and Permanency is caring for the child while police continue their investigation with the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office.

"With the public's help we're trying to locate the infant's mother to put closure to this and find out what happened," Cruz said.

He would not disclose the exact address of where the baby was foun,  to protect the family's privacy.

Cruz said that New Jersey's Safe Haven Law can avoid situations like this. The law allows a mother to surrender a newborn child less than 30 days old at a staffed hospital emergency room, police station, fire station, or first aid and rescue squad with no questions asked.

The New Jersey Department of Children and Families will take the infant into custody and place the infant with a foster or pre-adoptive home.

Cruz asked anyone with information to call the Trenton Police Tipline at 609-989-3663 or its detective's bureau at 609-989-4155.

In an unrelated incident, police in Jersey City are also asking for the public's help finding who left a deceased 10-month-old baby in a suitcase earlier this month.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ