MINAM, Ore. - An Oregon man on his way home after a day of steelhead fishing in a state park spotted the body of a newborn beside a dirt road, and a sheriff said foul play was suspected in the baby's death.
Mitch Johnson of Baker City said he noticed the body from the window of a pickup truck while in Minam State Park in northeast Oregon on Monday.
"I said, 'stop, back up,"' he told the Baker City Herald. "I knew what it was when I saw it."
Johnson, 48, and his brother got out of the truck to see if the baby was alive, but they knew it was unlikely that it had survived, given the cold weather. They discovered blood on the ground, along with a paper towel or some type of white cloth smeared with blood near where the naked baby lay, Johnson said.
"The baby was so perfect looking, it's face and head and everything," he said.
Johnson, along with his 12-year-old daughter and brother, drove to an area with cell phone coverage to call authorities, then led sheriff's deputies to the baby.
Johnson said investigators questioned him for about a half-hour before letting him return home.
Wallowa County Sheriff Fred Steen said persons of interest were being interviewed. The state medical examiner in Portland was to conduct an autopsy.
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