Sexual abuse is a horrific thing.
According to The National Center for Victims of Crime, every 1 in 5 girls (and 1 in 20 boys) is a victim of reported sexual abuse.
Years ago, Rochetta Cheek was one of these girls, giving birth to her abuser’s baby at only 13 years old.
She describes the events to FOX8, telling them that the man who had abused her took the baby immediately after it was born. Rochetta never knew what happened to the baby after that, but she tells FOX8:
“I never stopped thinking about her. I never took the image of her out of my mind.”
That fateful day, however, on November 12th, 1999, Tonie McNair had left her apartment at 6 am, en route to an early morning shift at work. On her way out of the building, she noticed a bundle of sheets underneath the stairs.
Tonie, thinking the bundle was perhaps a litter of kittens, approached the pile and was shocked by what she saw— a tiny baby girl.
She tells FOX8, “I saw the umbilical cord wrapped up under her arm, so I ran back into the house screaming and hollering.”
Tonie’s son Willie, who was 19 at the time, says, “We saw her out there wrapped, we were like, ‘Oh my God.’ I called the police and the ambulance.”
The tiny baby (who was later dubbed ‘Baby Doe’ by the media) was rushed to a local hospital, where she was said to be suffering from moderate to severe hypothermia.
Later on, she was adopted by her foster mother Carrie Thomas, who tells FOX8:
“I didn’t feel like I would adopt her until I held her in my arms. I picked up up December 19th, and the day I held her in my arms, I knew she would never leave my house.
In light of her struggles, the baby girl was named Angel.
Although Tonie had rescued the baby girl, she had received no updates and wondered about her often throughout the years— until she saw her on TV, that is!
The baby being found in 1999 had attracted a lot of media attention, and FOX8, 17 years later, decided to update the public in a segment that was seen by Tonie’s son Willie.
Upon seeing it, Willie immediately alerted his mother who called the station, hoping to be reunited with the baby she had saved so many years ago.
One week later, FOX8 makes it happen, on the scene to capture the events.
Check out the amazing reunion for yourself below!
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