Infant Abandoned on Indianapolis Southeast Side, Second Case in a Month

Indianapolis police are investigating after an infant was found abandoned on the city's southeast side, with officers conducting a welfare check at a home near Thompson Road and Arlington Avenue yesterday. Police have not released any information about the infant's condition, and no further case details were immediately available.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department confirmed it is looking into the abandonment, according to Fox 59. Officers were dispatched to the home near Thompson Road and Arlington Avenue as part of the welfare check, and the outlet reported that police had no further details to share at the time.

The case lands just a month after a similar incident on the city's Far East Side. Yesterday, IMPD officers responded to an abandoned newborn found along a trail near Lace Bark Lane, a case that Hoodline previously reported led to medical care for the infant's 16-year-old mother and the arrest of a 21-year-old man on charges of sexual misconduct with a minor. That case followed a more tragic discovery in September 2025, when IMPD Child Abuse detectives and the Marion County Coroner's Office opened an investigation after a deceased newborn was found along a walking trail in Brookside Park on the East Side.

What Indiana's Safe Haven Law Actually Allows

Indiana's Safe Haven Law, codified under Indiana Code IC 31-34-2.5, allows a parent to anonymously surrender an unharmed infant to an emergency medical service provider or in a designated newborn safety device without fear of arrest or prosecution. The law requires no personal information from the person surrendering a child, so long as there are no signs of intentional abuse, per the Indiana Department of Child Services.

State lawmakers widened that window last year. Under Indiana House Bill 1099, enacted in April 2025, the maximum age for surrendering an infant under the Safe Haven Law expanded from 30 days to 60 days, a change that took effect on July 1, 2025, to give struggling parents more time to seek help. Indiana was also the first state in the nation to install a Safe Haven Baby Box, launching the concept in April 2016 in Woodburn under retired paramedic Monica Kelsey.

Those climate-controlled, padded bassinets are installed on the exterior walls of fire stations and hospitals and trigger an immediate emergency dispatch when opened. As of early 2025, more than 150 of the boxes were operating across Indiana out of over 300 installed nationwide, according to Safe Haven Baby Boxes. Parents considering surrender, or facing a crisis pregnancy, can also reach trained counselors through the organization's 24-hour hotline at 1-866-99BABY1.

The Legal Risk When Surrender Goes Outside the Law

When an infant is abandoned outside those designated Safe Haven procedures, the legal exposure changes dramatically. Indiana Code IC 35-46-1-4 classifies neglect of a dependent as a Level 6 felony punishable by six months to two and a half years in prison, with penalties escalating to higher felony tiers if the child suffers serious bodily harm, according to Banks and Brower. Criminal liability turns on whether a caregiver knowingly placed a dependent in a situation endangering their life or health.

Once a baby is safely surrendered under the law, the Indiana Department of Child Services immediately assumes emergency custody, files a Child in Need of Services petition, and begins placement through foster care or a licensed adoption agency, with an initial court hearing required no later than the next business day. State data show that 17 infants were safely surrendered to state custody through Indiana's Safe Haven system during 2023, a figure that underscores how rarely families use the anonymous option even as unsafe abandonments continue to surface across Indianapolis.

Officers in this latest southeast side case have not disclosed whether they are pursuing criminal charges, and the infant's condition remains unknown. As the investigation continues, child advocates and law enforcement have repeatedly pointed back to the state's anonymous surrender options as an alternative for parents in crisis, especially as Indianapolis grapples with a string of unsafe abandonment cases in the span of less than a year.