ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando Police announced Wednesday that through DNA analysis they have identified the biological mother of three newborn babies found on doorsteps at Orlando and Orange County apartment complexes in 2016, 2017, and 2019.

Police said they have been talking with the woman since late November or early December. They said they have filed no charges but that an investigation continues.

Police provided no details about the woman but reiterated that she and one man are the biological parents of all three babies. All three today are healthy and in supportive homes, police said.

Orlando Police Lt. Frank Chisari said officials are helping the woman get treatment and services. She has been cooperative, and she understands what she did, Chisari said.

Still, he said, prosecutors are considering criminal charges against her.

“We’re working with the State Attorney’s Office to ensure that the biological mother is still held accountable for what she did here,” Chisari said. “You can’t just leave your children at an apartment complex, on a doorstep, unknown to who’s going to be taking care of them.”

Police said they found a note with one of the babies. In it, the mother wrote that she feared violence from the father, police said.

Chisari said police haven’t identified the father but that they’re looking into the nature of his relationship with the mother. The woman has other children, police said, but they haven’t looked into who fathered them.

The father of the three abandoned babies appears “out of the picture” with the mother, Chisari said.

“We have to work this as a criminal investigation,” he said.

Strangers found the three newborn babies abandoned at two apartment complexes in 2016, 2017, and 2019 – one baby in Orange County and two at different doorsteps of an Orlando complex.

The mother of the babies lived at neither complex and didn’t know the people who lived at the apartments, police said. She hid her pregnancies and delivered the babies herself, they said.

“It seems like just pure desperation,” Chisari said. “It seems like somebody who was just at the end of their rope … and didn’t think they had any other choice.”

Two of the children live together, one of them adopted and one in foster care, Chisari said. The other child lives in a different home.

At a Wednesday news conference, Chisari read a letter from one of the adoptive parents, who wrote:

“We have often wondered about the mother of our kids. And I pray for her safety and well-being. We know that she had her reasons for not keeping the babies, but the fact that they were perfectly healthy speaks volumes of the level of care she had during her pregnancies and to ensure the health of the babies, and how much she loved them.”

Chisari added, quoting the letter: “In our home she is known as our baby angel … Because of her, we were able to build our family.”

Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said at the news conference that he could relate to the myriad questions from reporters about the case, including from the early investigation.

“The first thing that came to my mind was exactly the same things that you have asked here,” he said. “It is intentional or not? Should a person be held accountable for their action? What about the father? What about the threat … the father, according to the note, and the intention to harm the mom and the other children?”

He added: “Then it was explained that there are a lot of other moving parts in this case, especially with the mom, that are being taken into consideration.”

Police emphasized that women or parents who wish to anonymously give up their children can turn to Florida’s Safe Haven law, which allows a parent to hand a newborn baby seven days old or younger to staff members of hospitals, fire stations, and emergency medical services providers. 

“The way the Florida Safe Haven laws are written, it’s just as easy to leave your newborn baby at the doorstep of a hospital or a fire station as it is to leave your baby at the doorstep of an apartment complex,” Chisari said. “If it’s at that point where you have no other choice in desperation and you have to surrender that child, please do it properly … so they can get the newborn baby the medical care that they need.”