TWIN FALLS, Idaho — "This parent did not follow the safe haven law and you a place to dead baby in the box and that's not part of the program," said Safe Haven Baby Boxes founder Monica Kelsey. The goal is to offer a safe place for parents to turn to surrender a newborn baby.
- In the past 3 years, Safe Haven Baby Boxes have grown from a handful to 280 nationwide.
- Fifty-three infants have been surrendered using baby boxes since 2017. Another 153 surrendered under Safe Surrender laws.
- A deceased infant was found in a baby box in Blackfoot on Oct. 13, which could lead to charges as the infant was deceased before being placed in the box.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"The law is very clear," Monica Kelsey said. "The child has to be under the age of surrender and unharmed in order to be legally surrendered under the state safe statutes."
Kelsey, founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, told me by phone that their goal is to offer a safe place for parents to turn to surrender a newborn baby — no questions asked.
"Boxes allow for anonymity so no one sees them," Kelsey said. "No one knows who they are and no one knows their name. They don't have to talk to anyone by walking into a facility. They can place their unharmed newborn in an electronically monitored baby box and walk away knowing that the staff on the inside of that fire station or hospital will take it from there."
The surrender site in Blackfoot was installed in July and is the only safe haven box in the state. The abandonment of a deceased baby girl on Oct. 13 was the only time it's been used.
I asked Kelsey if she had any thoughts on the recent incident in Blackfoot.
"The box worked exactly as it was designed to work, unfortunately, this parent did not follow the safe haven law ... and that's not part of the program," Kelsey said.
"We are working fully in cooperating with law enforcement so that they can do an investigation and find out what happened to this infant, and so it can get justice it deserves," Kelsey said.
Kelsey says in the past seven years, 53 infants have safely been surrendered in safe haven boxes nationwide — another 153 infants have been surrendered in person.
The number of safe haven baby boxes has grown from just a handful in 2019 to 280 across the country today
"We didn't even install our third baby box until 2019, so we've grown tremendously in the last two years. We've seen record numbers of surrender in our boxes in the last two years, and I anticipate that's going to continue to happen," Kelsey said.
The Twin Falls Police Department is leading the investigation, directing questions about the case to the Twin Falls County Prosecuting Attorney.
Our calls to the prosecuting attorney have so far been unanswered.
