We are part of The Trust Project.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Alexandria baby found alone in an empty, stolen vehicle in Minneapolis last week was so cold, his body temperature had dropped to 93 degrees, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.
The 6-month-old boy appears to have been in the car for at least two-and-a-half hours, at a time when the outside temperature was about 10 degrees, said Douglas County Det. Sgt. Scot Umlauf, who has been working with the Minneapolis Police Department on the case.
He said that based on the Minneapolis police report, a woman looked out and saw the car, a 1997 Lexus sedan, at about 5:30 a.m. and thought nothing of it. At 8 p.m., she left to go to work, but something told her to go back and get her coffee. She parked near the Lexus and that's when she heard the baby screaming, he said.
She told police that the baby was lying on a white pillow on the front seat. The passenger door was locked, but the driver's door was unlocked with the window rolled halfway down. She crawled across the driver's seat to get to the baby, brought him into her home, and wrapped him in a blanket.
He was later treated at Hennepin Healthcare for hypothermia.
ADVERTISEMENT
The baby is now doing well and in foster care in Douglas County, Umlauf said. His mother, Shaykeya M. Marquez, 31, of Alexandria has been charged in Douglas County with theft of motor vehicle. The sedan had been reported stolen from a home in Nelson on Dec. 26.
