They Heard Faint Cries. In the 75-Foot Ravine: an Infant

Little Shaylie Madden's mother has been arrested for attempted murder
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 11, 2019 9:00 AM CDT

Little Shaylie Madden is lucky to be alive. Thanks to an alert couple in North Carolina, the 7-week-old is doing OK after she was found Thursday evening lying next to her car seat at the bottom of a 75-foot ravine outside of Chimney Rock—and her mother has now been arrested. CNN reports that at first, Asheville cops were led to believe via a 911 call that Shaylie and her mother, 35-year-old Krista Madden, had possibly been kidnapped from their home. A little over an hour later, Madden's abandoned car was found, and not far from there, Henderson County Sheriff's deputies came across Madden herself, walking down a country road. Madden told cops she'd escaped from her masked captors (one male, one female), who she said still had her baby.

While she was being questioned was when Scott Fowler and his wife stumbled onto Shaylie after they heard her faint cries. "I'm thinking, 'What kind of human being can do this?'" he tells WLOS. "I went down there and got [her]. ... In a few minutes [she] just calmed right down, like [she] was in [her] mama's arms." Meanwhile, investigators soon saw Madden's story come apart and have now charged her with first-degree attempted murder. Thy believe Shaylie popped out of the car seat when it hit the ground after she was thrown into the ravine. It's not clear who made the 911 call, though authorities have said it wasn't Madden herself, per CBS News. Madden is being held on $750,000 bond, with her next hearing set for May 28. (More attempted murder stories.)

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