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17-Year-Old Charged With Attempted Murder After Leaving Her Baby in a Trash Bag for Three Days

The 8-month-old infant was discovered by neighbors who thought it was an animal.

A 17-year-old girl in Elmira, New York, has been arrested and charged with attempted murder after she allegedly left her infant in a trash bag outside for more than three days, reported WETM.

Harriette Hoyt, has been charged with attempted murder and is being held at Chemung County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, according to the district attorney's office.

The 8-month-old baby was discovered on Tuesday by two sisters, who were sitting on their porch and thought they heard an animal.  When they went around the house to investigate the noise, they noticed the baby.

"I ran up and I saw the little legs dangling out of the bag," Kayla Seals told WETM. "So I said, 'You guys, it's a baby.'"

Seals told reporters that she tore open the bag and found the baby, whose head was facing the inside of the bag. The baby girl was barely breathing, covered in waste, and her eyes were closed, Seals said. Seals rushed the baby inside to give her some water.

"She wasn't breathing, but she opened her mouth for me and I dropped some water in there and she started gasping for air after I did that. Her eyes weren't opening, so I cleaned her eyes, so her eyes would open up to me and I just spoke to her, 'C'mon baby, c'mon baby, c'mon sweetness,'" Seals told WETM.

The baby, who is now in stable condition at a hospital, was left wrapped in plastic for 72 hours in the summer heat.

The baby’s 17-year-old mother is being charged as an adult, but is eligible for youthful offender status, Elmira Police Sgt. Bill Solt told reporters.

If convicted of the felony attempted murder charge as an adult, Hoyt could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.

"What that little girl went through is wrong," Kayla Seals's sister, Karen Seals, told WETM. "That little girl don't deserve that. Everybody in this town is just praying for her."

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