Washington police offer $25K reward after baby girl abandoned to die
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WASHINGTON -- Police in Washington were offering a $25,000 reward for new information months after a baby girl was abandoned to die on the stoop of a home in the city's northeast.
Metropolitan Police Department commander George Kucik issued a plea for help Friday to find the person responsible for leaving the girl outside a house in freezing temperatures Jan. 15, myFOXdc.com reported.
"We've been through hospitals, we've done all the searches of that nature," Kucik said. "At this point, we have still not been able to identify the mother."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The girl's death was ruled a homicide by a medical examiner Thursday, which allowed the authorities to offer a reward for information leading to an arrest.
"If someone had a baby for a couple of days and suddenly they don't [want the baby] or this person says I gave it up for adoption, let's hear about that tip, let's follow up. If they had a baby, they gave it up for adoption, we want to verify that if we get a tip like that," Kucik added.
The unidentified black child was found unclothed and wrapped in a towel.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She was spotted by Emmanuel Dugger in front of his neighbor's gate as he walked home in the Gateway neighborhood late at night. Though Dugger tried to save the infant, there were no signs of life and she was pronounced dead in the early hours of Jan. 16.
Ian Milne, who lives in the home where she was abandoned, said he often thinks about the little girl his neighbors named "Channing Chance," after the street she was found on.
Milne told WTTG-TV that the police "talked to me three or four times [since the incident]. I keep wanting to have more information but [I have] nothing else."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}D.C. has a safe haven law, meaning that the parents could have left the child at a hospital, police station or fire station without a criminal penalty.
Police released a photograph Friday of the towel the infant girl was wrapped in and said they hoped the picture or reward will help solve the case.