Woman Asks for Help in Identifying Her Rescuers Who Found Her in a Dumpster When She Was a Baby

A 36-year-old woman is calling on the public to help her find the person or people who rescued her from a Georgia dumpster in 1983.

Amanda Jo Jones was a newborn when her birth parents wrapped her in a blanket and abandoned her near an Atlanta mall, Yahoo! Lifestyle reports. Luckily, Jones was discovered by some good samaritans and later taken in by a loving couple.

Now, nearly 37 years later, Jones is searching for the people who rescued her from the dumpster on that winter day in January 1983 — and she’s hoping that the Facebook community might be able to help.

Last week, Jones shared a picture of herself holding up a sign with her request: to find the people who saved her life. The mother of three also shared the newspaper clipping shortly after she was discovered, as well as a baby photo.

“Hi! My name is Amanda Jones. I am trying to find the person/people who potentially saved my life,” she wrote alongside the post. “I was abandoned as an infant at the Prado Business Mall at 5600 Roswell Rd (in Atlanta/Sandy Springs, GA) in January of 1983.”

“If you have any information, please contact me at babyjanwinter@gmail.com or on FaceBook. Thank You!!!” she added. “Please help me by ‘liking’ and ‘sharing’ this post!”

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Though Jones only knows limited details about her abandonment, time in a foster home and adoption, she says her parents Kay and Wayne, who adopted her as a 3-month-old, were always transparent with her about her life story.

“They were told ‘something about a dumpster,'” she told Yahoo! Lifestyle, adding that old newspaper articles in addition to her parents’ faint memories have helped her piece the scattered details together.

“My mom read me a book called The Adopted Family, and she shared bits of information,” she recalled to the outlet. “I kept asking questions and by the time I was 6, I understood that my mom didn’t birth me.”

Local newspapers, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who covered her rescue in 1983, state that Jones was initially referred to as “Jan Winter” by the nurses at Northside Hospital shortly after she was brought in.

Jones was then placed in foster care, where she was temporarily named Crystal Alicia Fairchild, before she was adopted by Kay and Wayne of Palmetto, Georgia in April 1983 and renamed Amanda Jo.

Her adoption records, however, remain sealed and difficult to uncover — they were not stored electronically at the time — and not many other officials know details of her discovery.

“Imagine if you were to walk into a library to get a book that you really wanted to read and the last chapter was missing,” she told the AJC. “That’s what my life has been like.”

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To learn more about her past, Jones said she paid for DNA tests which helped determine some relatives’ identities, but she hasn’t been interested in locating her birth parents.

“I have done some DNA testing and have decided to respect the privacy of those involved who wish not to communicate with me,” she wrote on Facebook when asked if she would be interested in finding her birth parents.

Still, it wasn’t until this past June when another baby in Georgia was heartlessly abandoned in a plastic bag in the woods, with her bloody umbilical cord attached to her body, that Jones became inspired to start searching for her saviors, Yahoo! Lifestyle reports.

“I saw that baby on TV and wished I could adopt her,” Jones told the outlet. “One less child would grow up feeling abandoned.”

Her first step was to go to the Fulton County Police Department last week and attempt to obtain a report from 1983, the AJC reports.

Jones was successful in doing so, thanks to Fulton County Police Lt. Scott McBride, and uncovered a file on microfilm. Unfortunately, not much was legible, besides a few words including “Braves blanket.”

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With most of her options exhausted, Jones, who is now married and shares three kids with her her husband of five years, decided to turn to Facebook in hopes that someone would recognize her story or baby photo and help connect her to the people who saved her life.

“I want to thank whoever found me because they changed so many lives by being in the right place at the right time,” she told Yahoo! Lifestyle. “I would like a first-hand account of what happened because it would brighten my life.”

“I’m hoping one person reads this and says, ‘Oh my gosh, there she is!'” Jones added.

The mom of three also emphasized how their decision to help her ultimately changed her fate, as well as the life course of her loved ones.

“I want to thank the people who found me, from the bottom of my hearts and my parents’ hearts,” Jones told the AJC. “Whoever found me could have turned their back and said, ‘I’m not getting involved.’ They didn’t and as a result, they changed so many lives.”

Anyone with information about the 1983 rescue is asked to contact Amanda Jones at babyjanwinter@gmail.com or via Facebook messenger.