FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — UPDATE: The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office has announced the baby's mother, Karima Jiwani was identified and is now facing charges after a break in the case 10 months ago with DNA leading to the identification first of the father.
Jiwani faces charges including criminal attempt to commit murder, first degree cruelty to children, aggravated assault and reckless abandonment.
According to the sheriff's office, there was no evidence the father was ever aware of Jiwani's pregnancy or Baby India's birth and abandonment.
Now four years old, Sheriff Ron H. Freeman did not want to share many details about the child's current situation but said she was "happy, healthy, in a safe place."
There were some additional details about the case the sheriff shared but did not fully elaborate on as the investigation remains ongoing.
That included evidence showing Jiwani likely gave birth in a car and then drove around for a period of time with the baby before allegedly leaving her in the woods in the bag.
The sheriff focused in on that, explaining Georgia's safe haven laws which allow a mother to drop off a newborn within 30 days at a safe location like a hospital or fire station.
In this case, the baby was deliberately put in a tied-up plastic bag and "thrown into the woods like a bag of trash," Sheriff Freeman said. He stressed his belief that it was "divine intervention" the baby was ever found, as there was only really one house with anybody nearby who could have made the initial discovery.
The lengths to which Jiwani allegedly went to leave the baby somewhere she would not be found form the basis of the criminal attempt to murder charge, the sheriff indicated.
"She made no effort to leave this child at any safe place where there was any remote possibility of her being located," he said.
He added detectives are working to locate the vehicle and "have leads on it." Additionally, he said Jiwani had a history of "concealed pregnancies and surprise births" and "went to extremes to conceal" her pregnancy with Baby India.
Freeman noted "detectives, all of us were surprised" by this element of the case, but said they had "not found additional acts like this" - abandoning the baby in a remote location - in any of the evident previous concealed pregnancies.
"A biological parent - I trouble with the word mother - who inexplicably intentionally left her newborn infant to die," he said.
Original story below
The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office has made an arrest in a case that shocked metro Atlanta -- a newborn baby found inside a plastic bag abandoned in the woods.
The sheriff's office announced that an arrest was made in the case involving baby India. The newborn baby was abandoned in June 2019 after a family called 911, claiming they were hearing cries coming from the woods nearby.
When police went to check on the call, they found the baby tied up inside a plastic bag, her umbilical cord still intact.
Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman said the baby was found in good condition when he last spoke with 11Alive in 2019.
"They discussed whether it was a wild animal -- you don't anticipate hearing a crying baby in the woods," Freeman said. "Thank God they went out and investigated that, and immediately called 911."
Following India's discovery, investigators said they partnered with Augusta law enforcement to find a suspect. After four years, deputies arrested a suspect Thursday morning.
Deputies will release more information during a press conference on Friday, May 19 held at their headquarters in Cumming, which will start at 2 p.m.
Watch the chilling moments the baby was found inside a plastic bag inside a Forsyth County woodline:
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