Olympia-area woman could face abandonment charge

A woman who left her newborn baby boy at her mother's home Wednesday morning in Lacey faces a possible charge of felony family abandonment, a prosecutor said.

Olympia police found the woman Wednesday afternoon at St. Michael Church in Olympia, Lacey police Lt. Jim Mack said.

The woman delivered the baby alone at her apartment on Lilly Road overnight, and soon after that, she left the infant at her mother's home on Seventh Avenue in Lacey, Mack said.

The woman had tied off the baby's umbilical cord and left the child on a kitchen table wrapped in blankets, Mack said.

According to Mack:

The child was unhurt. The grandmother was not at the residence when the baby was left there, but an adult man was sleeping in the home. He called authorities when he woke and found the baby.

Lacey police advised officers to be on the lookout for the mother's vehicle, and Olympia police later found her at the church.

Thurston County Chief Criminal Deputy Jon Tunheim said that his office plans to file a felony family-abandonment charge against the woman. The charge is a class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.