A 2026 change broadened Georgia’s legal options for safely surrendering newborns before police found an infant abandoned on Abercorn Street.
SAVANNAH, Ga. — The discovery of an infant alive in a Savannah trash can has renewed attention on Georgia’s Safe Place for Newborns Act, which lawmakers expanded this year to give families more lawful options for surrendering newborn children.
Savannah police found the infant early Oct. 10 after responding about 2:45 a.m. to a report of child abandonment in the 7100 block of Abercorn Street. The child received immediate medical care and was placed with the Georgia Department of Human Services’ Division of Family & Children Services. Three people were arrested in connection with the case.
Dominique Welcome, 29, and Jamal West, 44, were charged with cruelty to children, police said. Chiquita Roche, 39, was charged with being a party to a crime and with willful obstruction of law enforcement officers by use of threats or violence. Authorities have not publicly detailed the relationships among the defendants and the infant or said which person, if any, would have been eligible to use the state’s safe-haven protections.
Georgia’s safe-haven law is designed to prevent newborn injuries and deaths by allowing a qualifying child to be surrendered safely instead of abandoned. The General Assembly revised the law through House Bill 350, which took effect July 1, 2026. The revised statute generally protects a mother from prosecution for specified abandonment-related offenses when a newborn no more than 45 days old is surrendered under the conditions set out in the law.
The 2026 law broadened the places and methods available for surrender. It includes on-duty personnel at qualifying medical facilities, fire stations, police stations, public safety vehicles and ambulance services. It also authorizes certain facilities to install monitored newborn safety devices, sometimes called baby boxes, when statutory staffing and safety requirements are met.
The law also extends protection to a person assisting or acting at the direction of a mother when the underlying surrender would qualify for immunity. A surrendered newborn must be taken for medical care, and the Department of Human Services is notified before assuming custody under the process established by state law.
Some public information pages and initial news reports still described Georgia’s previous 30-day limit after the Savannah case became public. The legislation signed in 2026 changed the controlling statutory language to 45 days. That distinction is important because the abandonment occurred more than three months after the revised law took effect.
State rules also call for signs at authorized safe-haven locations so members of the public can recognize places where newborns may be surrendered. Georgia’s Department of Human Services has long provided standardized signage for medical facilities, fire stations and police stations, while the 2026 law added additional surrender options and authorized newborn safety devices.
The safe-haven statute does not determine the outcome of the Savannah criminal case. Police have released the charges against Welcome, West and Roche but have not publicly provided enough information to establish whether the law could apply to any of them. Their charges remain allegations unless proven in court.
The infant remained safe in state care in the latest public update. Savannah police had announced no additional arrests as of Wednesday, and authorities had not released further information about the child’s condition or the next court proceedings for the three defendants.
Author note: Last updated Oct. 14, 2026.