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Topic: Baby found in lake captivates Brazilians (Read 267 times)

Rhune
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Baby found in lake captivates Brazilians
« on: Jan 31^st, 2006, 11:00am »

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Baby found in lake captivates Brazilians
Mother charged with attempted homicide

Monday, January 30, 2006; Posted: 12:48 p.m. EST (17:48 GMT)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Dozens of people mobbed a hospital Monday in southeastern Brazil, hoping to adopt or catch a glimpse of a baby girl found in a black plastic bag floating on a lake, authorities said.

A press officer for the Odilion Behrens Municipal Hospital said the hospital had received more than 100 offers to adopt the 2-month-old and that calls continued to jam the hospital switchboard.

The official, who declined to give her name, said crowds had mobbed the hospital in Belo Horizonte, 300 miles (500 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro, after the baby's rescue Saturday was filmed by an amateur video cameraman and broadcast on national television.

Minas Gerais state police Inspector Helcio Sa Bernardes said the baby's mother was arrested Sunday and charged with attempted homicide for putting the baby into the bag, setting it on a board and pushing it into the lake.

The mother, Simone Cassiano da Silva, has denied abandoning the girl. She claimed she gave the baby to a group of homeless people because she didn't have enough money to raise the child.

"I couldn't stay with her," da Silva told AP Television News. "I did not have a minimum psychological condition to stay with her. ... I asked them to leave the baby in some place for me, because I did not want to see it."

But police discounted her story.

"That's just a lie to mislead the police," Bernardes said in a telephone interview.

The mother was arrested after workers at the maternity ward where the baby was brought told police the child was born there. The baby was premature and stayed in the maternity ward for two months.

On Saturday morning, the mother picked the baby up from the hospital and took a taxi to the lake, where the baby was later found, authorities said.

The mother was arrested by the police in front of her boyfriend's house carrying a bag and hailing a taxi. Police believe she was getting ready to run away.

The video footage broadcast first on Brazilian television and then worldwide showed rescuers using a tree branch to pull the black plastic bag out of the water. They opened the bag and found the girl wearing a pink dress.

"I heard what sounded like a cat," Jose da Cruz told Globo TV. "Then the noise was increasing and it caught my attention."

The wooden board attached to the bag apparently kept it from sinking in the Pampulha Lake in downtown Belo Horizonte, one of the country's largest cities. The lake is part of the famous Pampulha Park.

Hospital officials said the baby was in good health and was expected to be released soon to juvenile authorities.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

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