Girl, 16, ID'd As Mother Of Abandoned Baby In Hermosa Alley

CHICAGO — Police said they've found the mother of a baby boy who was discovered abandoned on top of a garbage can Tuesday on Chicago's Northwest Side, police said. Police have taken a 16-year-old girl and the baby's father in for questioning.

Two people found the newborn in critical condition at 1714 N. Keystone Avenue and rushed him to a nearby firehouse.

The baby was taken to Norwegian American Hospital at 4:11 p.m., where his condition was stabilized, authorities said. He was then transported to Lurie Children's Hospital.

The boy was the first baby in Illinois to be illegally abandoned this year, according to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Under the state's Safe Haven Law, babies 30 days or younger can be dropped off — with no questions asked — at a fire station, hospital or police station.

The family of a missing pregnant woman believed the abandoned baby could be hers, and held a press conference Wednesday morning on Chicago's Northwest Side. Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui, 19, was nine months pregnant when she was last seen in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood in late April. Relatives said they're convinced there's some wrongdoing and that she's still alive.

Ochoa-Uriostegui was last seen in the area of 2001 S. California and may have been driving a black Honda Civic with the plate AW27865, police said. She is 5 feet 3 inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes, police said. She was last seen wearing a gray sweater, sweatpants and a maroon shirt with a Latino Youth High School logo on it, and she sometimes wears a nose ring.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Special Victim's Unit at 312-747-8274.