Tuesday, January 31, 2006
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Doctors released a 2-month-old girl from a hospital Monday, two days after she was found in a black plastic bag floating in Pampulha Lake. Scores of Brazilians mobbed Odilion Behrens Municipal Hospital hoping to adopt or at least catch a glimpse of the child whose rescue was filmed by an amateur cameraman and broadcast worldwide.
Authorities said it was the same Belo Horizonte hospital where the infant was born prematurely two months ago, which helped authorities locate the mother, Simone Cassiano da Silva. Police arrested Da Silva, 27, Sunday and charged her with attempted homicide. She denied she set the child adrift, claiming she gave the baby to a group of homeless people because she did not have enough money to raise her.