Wheaton couple gets hometown award for saving abandoned baby

Margie Logan was going through the morning routine on June 12 when her husband rushed into their Wheaton home and uttered something unbelievable.

Joe Logan said there was a baby in their yard.

At first, Margie wasn't sure she heard him right. She assumed something was wrong with their dog, Redbelly, who was barking uncontrollably outside.

But when she followed her husband to a spot near the driveway, Margie saw it for herself: A naked newborn boy lying face down.

"I picked him up, turned him around and saw the (umbilical) cord still attached," she said.

She remembers the abandoned baby was dirty and cold to the touch. A "very faint whimper" told her he was alive. Still, there was reason for concern.

"He wasn't moving like a newborn," she said. "His little mouth was moving and that was really about it."

As she wrapped the child in a towel and gently cleaned his face, Joe called 911.

"When you need it, it's really hard to dial," he said.

Wheaton police say everything is working out fine for the child the Logans saved that day.

Deputy Chief Tom Meloni said the infant, named Joshua during his stay in the hospital, is in "very excellent condition" and has been placed in foster care by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

On Thursday, Wheaton police thanked the Logans for their fortunate timing and quick thinking by presenting them with the department's Citizens Commendation Award, an honor bestowed about six times in the past decade. Redbelly was named an honorary police K-9 and given a plaque complete with a plastic dog bone.

"As human beings, we underestimate how smart our pets are," Meloni said. "But Red here communicated to her owners that there was an emergency and that something was wrong."

Indeed, Joe Logan suspected something was wrong that morning when he went to get his newspaper and Redbelly wouldn't stop barking in the fenced backyard.

"She was waking up pretty much the whole neighborhood," he said. "She was relentlessly barking."

Upon investigating, Joe found the infant under a bush with dirt, twigs and leaves around him.

It appears the newborn was outside for at least two hours before being discovered. Paramedics treated the infant at the scene before taking him to Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

The Logans, who attended the Thursday award ceremony with Redbelly and their two children, Abigail, 7, and 5-year-old Joey, along with other family, friends and co-workers, say they're grateful to learn the infant is doing well.

The boy's mother, Nunu Sung, a 24-year-old Myanmar native who came from Texas in February to live with her cousins in Wheaton, faces up to three years in prison if convicted of obstructing justice and endangering the life of a child.

She was released July 16 from jail after posting $5,000 bail pending an Aug. 4 court hearing. Sung, who hid her pregnancy from relatives and never received prenatal care, repeatedly has asked about her son's health and for permission to see him, since her arrest.

The Logans want to go see little Joshua, but state child-welfare authorities haven't allowed a supervised visit. They expressed empathy for the baby's mother, but disbelief at her actions.

"It took me a day or two to get my knees under me," Joe said. "But now I'm ecstatic. I am proud and blessed that I was there."

When asked what it feels like to be a hero, Margie said: "I don't know if we'd call ourselves heroes. I'm sure anybody would have done the same thing. The real heroes are the doctors, police and paramedics who responded so quickly."

Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer Christy Gutowski contributed to this report.