Global Courant 2023-05-20 23:07:20
Nearly four years after a newborn was found in a plastic bag in a wooded area, Georgia deputies have arrested the woman they believe is the child’s biological mother.
Karima Jiwani, 40, was charged with criminal attempted murder, aggravated assault, reckless neglect, first-degree cruelty to children and “other charges,” according to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. The Southeast Forsyth County woman was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Terry Roper, who helped save the baby nearly four years ago.
Authorities found the baby girl in a wooded area in Cumming, Georgia, after an 911 call came in around 10 p.m. on June 6, 2019, according to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. Baby India, as she has been named by authorities, has been placed with a foster home approved by the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services.
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office released video of deputies finding the newborn in hopes it would lead to “credible information” about the baby’s identity. In the video, a deputy ripped open a plastic bag to reveal India still covered in fluid and an umbilical cord attached. India was then wrapped in cloth and given first aid by paramedics before being taken to a local hospital.
Baby India was found in Forsyth County just before severe thunderstorms hit the area, Sheriff Ron H. Freeman told reporters Friday.
“At the time I called it divine intervention and I truly believe that, still do,” Freeman said. “If you look at all that had to happen for this little girl to survive, for alert people to hear a noise in the woods that they thought was a wild animal, but two teenage girls who couldn’t let it go because they thought it sounded like a crying baby.”
The girls convinced their father to go to the woods in the middle of the night to see where the noise was coming from, Freeman said, prompting Deputy Roper to arrive at the scene to help discover and rescue the baby.
The investigation spanned from the Northeast to the Midwest and took thousands of hours, according to Freeman. Investigators got their chance about 10 months ago when the sheriff’s office identified Baby India’s father using family DNA.
The sheriff’s office arrested Jiwani Thursday.
“How a parent, and I happen to be one, can do something so callous is both incomprehensible to all of us and infuriating,” Freeman said. “I am amazed at any reasoning that could be out there and how anyone could have the option of leaving their own child to die.”
Freeman has not discussed the motive or details of Jiwani’s interview due to pending prosecution.
Georgia has a Safe Haven law, which allows a newborn baby up to 30 days old to be left at a medical facility, fire station, or police station without the parents being prosecuted. Freeman said there is evidence that Jiwani allegedly gave birth in a car and drove around for “a considerable period of time,” making no effort to take advantage of the state’s Safe Haven law.
“This child was tied in a plastic bag and thrown into the woods like a garbage bag,” he said. “I can’t understand that, I really wish I could. I struggle, but I don’t know how you can understand that. It’s literally one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.”
Jiwani reportedly has “a history of covert and concealed pregnancies and surprise births” and had known about this pregnancy for “quite a long time and did everything in her power to hide it,” according to Freeman.
Roper was one of the deputies who arrested Jiwani. However, the handcuffs on Jiwani belonged to Freeman.
“I told you four years ago we’d find them and they’d have my handcuffs on, and they were,” Freeman said.
When it comes to Baby India, she is happy and healthy. According to Freeman, many members of the Forsyth community offered to step up and adopt or adopt the child.
“When a biological parent wouldn’t do what they should, Forsyth County surrounded this little girl with love, care and prayers and lifted her up, as they should,” he said.
The FBI in Atlanta and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations assisted the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation, which can now be brought before a grand jury by the district attorney.
The prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
