Couple finds newborn baby in the woods

YORK COUNTY, Va. (WAVY) - A York County couple discovered a newborn baby girl abandoned in the woods Saturday around 4:30 p.m..

Amanda Moulton says she and her boyfriend Roman Alis almost never walk down the wooded path off Middle Road in Dandy, but Saturday she wanted to show him where she played as a child. 

"We were just walking down the path, and we heard a faint cry," said Alis. 

During the walk, the two heard a baby crying, but thought the cries were coming from one of the homes in the distance. 

When they came to a clearing, a gut feeling made them turn around and double check.

"We still didn't think there was a baby back there, but you've got to go check," said Alis, describing what he was thinking at the time. 

Their first instinct was right. 

Alis saw a red patch in the brush. When he approached it, he saw a baby, wrapped in a red bath towel, placed between two logs. The couple remembers the baby's face and dark curly hair were showing.

Alis called 911 and an operator told the couple to pick up the infant. Moulton says she picked her up and began to pray out loud, while Alis continued to talk to the 911 operator. 

"I was actually praying the entire time I was holding the baby," said Moulton. "I was praying she was going to be okay, that the police would be able to find us in the middle of this wooded path."

The couple says the baby could not have been in the woods very long, because it had not been bitten by mosquitos and did not appear hungry or irritable. Moulton remembers the girl was alert, but quiet after the initial cry they heard. 

Moulton handed the baby over to medics when they arrived on scene. Doctors say the little girl is expected to be alright. They estimate she is between three days and one week old. 

"I definitely believe it was an act of God and the Holy Spirit," said Moulton. "Even the fact that we had left the scene, and we turned around thinking, 'This is impossible. There's not going to be a baby back there, but let's go check anyway.'"

Alis and Moulton say they realized after that they may have saved the infant's life. They do not pass judgment on the child's parents, saying they do not know the circumstances that led up to the discovery. 

The infant's mother, Viktoria Williams, 18, of the 200 block of Middle Road, turned herself in at the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office Saturday night. Williams is charged with felony child neglect. She is being held at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail without bond. 

Document: Affidavit for Search Warrant

The  Virginia Safe Haven Law  says babies, up to 14 days old, can be left with an employee at any hospital emergency room or an emergency medical rescue squad.