The Latest on the abandonment of a 5-month-old baby in the woods in Montana (all times local):
11 a.m.
Prosecutors say a man told investigators he left a 5-month-old baby boy in the woods after a car crash because the baby was very heavy.
Officers found the baby – cold and hungry – under a pile of debris and sticks early Sunday.
Francis Crowley, 32, is scheduled to appear in court in Missoula Tuesday on charges of assault on a minor and criminal endangerment.
Missoula County prosecutors say deputies were called to Lolo Hot Springs Saturday night because Crowley was creating a disturbance. Officers learned he and the baby had been in a crash.
Charging documents say Crowley was disoriented, likely because of drug use, and unable to help officers find the baby.
Searchers followed a road Crowley said he had traveled and eventually found the car and the baby nearby.
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11:29 p.m. Monday
A 5-month-old infant who miraculously survived more than nine hours being buried under a pile of sticks and debris in the woods of western Montana suffered only minor injuries despite wearing wet and soiled clothes in cold weather, authorities said.
The baby boy is otherwise in good condition, authorities said.
Missoula County Sheriff’s deputies were called about 8 p.m. Saturday about a man threatening people in the Lolo Hot Springs area of the Lolo National Forest. Deputies apprehended the man, who indicated that a baby was buried somewhere in the woods.
The sheriff’s office hastily put together a search crew of federal, state and local officials that combed the forest outside the hot springs for six hours before a deputy heard a baby’s cry at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday.
He found the baby face-down under the pile of sticks and debris, dressed only in a wet and soiled onesie in the 46-degree (8-degree Celsius) weather.
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