Probation officer discovers infant left in hot home alone

BARNSTABLE, Mass. — A probation officer's decision to make an unannounced visit ended up saving a 5-week-old baby from a hot home, all alone.

Barnstable Juvenile Probation Officer Julie Hall was in the neighborhood where a client lived in early July and decided to visit the mom she was working with. She makes scheduled and unscheduled visits to troubled homes all the time.  Hall was supervising Stefanie DaSilva, 19, as a Care and Protection case.

Hall walked up to the door and heard a baby boy crying. She knocked on the doors, rang the doorbell, and went to every window - but no one was home. She felt the air conditioning unit, and it was off, she said.

"That's when I decided to call 911 because I could just hear him  in the background screaming," said Hall.

Knowing the gravity of the situation, Hall called 911, the family's social worker, and her boss.

Police arrived and took the window AC unit out to into the apartment. The office of probation the baby was dressed in two outfits, covered in blankets and soaked in urine.

"He was in his crib. He was crying. He was hot. His body was hot. I just picked him up and he stopped crying," said Hall.

Her boss, Assistant Chief Ann MacDonald, fed the baby, and then the boy was taken to Cape Cod Hospital.

The 5-week-old was later placed in foster care.

"I was incredibly relieved when the police arrived and then emotional once I was able to pick up the baby and know he was okay. He is now being well cared for,” Hall said.

Police said the mom, DaSilva eventually came home. According to the police report, she told officers she went to get some food, and then admitted, "I'm not sure how long I've been gone." She later estimated about four hours.

"It's just sad. He's like five weeks old," said MacDonald.

MacDonald is the county’s assistant chief probation officer. Right now, there are more than 660 children in the Barnstable Court System considered Care and Protection cases. MacDonald said often times they’ll have to remove a child because of unsafe or dangerous conditions. However, to find a baby completely abandoned is an extremely rare case.

DaSilva is charged with reckless endangerment of a child. She’s due back in court next month.

Cox Media Group