There’s something about numbers that always seem to stick with Retired South Bend Police Lieutenant Gene Eyster.
Case numbers, addresses, license plates – if he jotted them down at some point during his 47 years of policing, they’re likely still swimming through his mind, even today, nearly five years since working his final shift at SBPD.
It’s how he can still remember the date, the time, the outside temperature and even the TV channel he was watching when he received one of the more unsettling phone calls of his police career. It was just a few days before Christmas – December 22, 2000 – when South Bend Officers were called to the Park Jefferson Apartments on the city’s northeast side.
When they arrived, they were directed to a cardboard box sitting in the hallway of one of the apartment buildings. It was where, just minutes before, a man living in the building heard what he could’ve sworn was the sound of a baby crying. He was right.
Carefully opening the flaps of the box, the man found an infant– no more than a few days old – lying inside, wrapped in blankets and a flannel shirt. The baby was transported to the hospital and was left in the care of the hospital’s labor and delivery nurses.
Responding officers collected some details then contacted Eyster, who, at the time, was a Sergeant in the Major Crimes Unit.
Eyster had a lot of questions but not a lot of time – how did the baby get there? Was he kidnapped? Was it intentional? Is anyone looking for him?
Eyster quickly enlisted the help of the local media outlets to spread the word about this discovery. Within days, news of “Baby Boy Doe” spread through South Bend.
“’Baby Doe’ sounded so cruel,” Eyster explained. “So… I started calling him ‘Baby Jesus’ since it was so close to Christmas.”
Eyster then went out and purchased a teddy bear for the baby to bring him some comfort in his hospital crib.
Tips quickly flowed in, allowing Eyster to identify the parents and to piece together the circumstances. Through the investigation, the mother ultimately faced a neglect charge and the little baby in the box was adopted by a new family.
Over the next 23 years, Eyster would often wonder what happened to that little baby. Was he safe? Was he still local?
Last week, Eysters phone rang. It was South Bend Police Officer Josh Morgan.
“Gene,” Morgan said. “You aren’t going to believe this.”
Morgan asked Eyster if he remembered investigating the case of a newborn abandoned at Park Jefferson apartments. Of course he did, he doesn’t forget anything – especially not that case.
“He’s sitting next to me right now,” Morgan exclaimed. “He’s my rookie!”
South Bend Police Officer Matthew Hegedus-Stewart recently mentioned to Officer Morgan, his Field Training Officer, that he had been adopted as a baby. And it wasn’t until Morgan and Hegedus-Stewart responded to a call regarding an abandoned child that Hegedus-Stewart shared more about his own story, revealing that it all happened here in South Bend.
Officer Morgan then tracked down the original case report from December 2000 and saw Eysters name as the lead investigator.
Today, Eyster had the chance to lay eyes on Officer Hegedus-Stewart for the first time since placing a teddy bear in his crib at the hospital.
“You’re a little bit bigger now,” Eyster joked to Hegedus-Stewart.
The two then spent time chatting and sifting through the case documents, including more than a dozen photos of a two-day-old Officer Hegedus-Stewart at the hospital – photos he, nor his family, had ever seen before.
Officer Hegedus-Stewart has to wonder if, even subconsciously, this experience motivated him to want to pursue law enforcement. Never did he imagine, however, he’d end up at the same agency that helped investigate his case during his first days of life.
“Thank you for everything you did for me,” Officer Hegedus-Stewart told Eyster, while shaking his hand.
March 22, 2024. The day Gene Eyster finally got to meet “Baby Jesus” all grown up, wearing the same uniform he wore for nearly five decades. Add that to the list of dates he’ll never forget. South Bend Police Department
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Random Acts of Kindness as shown in hundreds of articles in the attached sites below, save and improve lives for many around the world every day.
I hope, through the publication of positive stories and resources, to energize readers to take their own actions to make our world a better place. If you are already there, thanks!!
Have a healthy and impactful life, Peter Prichard
-WEBSITE/BLOG – Have Positive Impact – https://havepositiveimpact.com/
The focus of my Daily Positive Impact posts is captured in many studies and stories described on the sites below:
–Witnessing acts of kindness produces Oxytocin, which aids in lowering blood pressure and improving our overall heart-health. Oxytocin also increases our self-esteem and optimism: www.randomactsofkindness.org
–On the Road with Steve Hartmann – Kindness 101: