City of Orlando’s System Evaluation and Maintenance teams searched several sewers Thursday morning as police continue to look for a missing newborn baby girl they call "Baby Willow."

The workers said the Orlando Police Department requested their help in searching the sewers near the Willow Bend Apartments.

THE BASICS:

  • A placenta was found in the Willow Bend Apartments parking lot Monday
  • Police arrested Susan Richardson, 30, Tuesday
  • Richardson told police she had the baby and left the child on a doorstep -- something police do not believe

Workers pulled up more than a dozen manholes and used cameras to weave through sewer lines. Police are expecting the worst and hoping for the best. 

The mother, 30-year-old Susan Richardson, is in jail as police and others exhaust their efforts to find any sign of the newborn. 

On Thursday, someone who knows Richardson, said the mother has given away other newborns right after giving birth. 

“I’m just praying and hoping that they do find the baby," Odanel Lewis said. 

Lewis is a family friend of Richardson and her boyfriend, Johnnie Bryant, who is also the father of the baby. He said he does not want to talk about what he is going through right now. 

“That’s why he’s really not talking because he’s afraid that y’all gonna try to take his child and he loves all his kids," Lewis said. "He loves his kids.”

Lewis said Bryant only has custody of one child, a 7-year-old girl he shares with Richardson. She said the other children were given away at birth.

“She’s had like five or six kids," Lewis said. “All her other kids is in other people’s care. Her aunty has custody of one of their kids.”

But this time, everyone is left wondering what Richardson did with her latest newborn. 

“He don’t know what happened," Lewis said about Bryant. "He don’t know.”

This all began Monday, when Orlando police were called to the apartment complex because a placenta was found in the parking lot. A trail of blood led to Richardson’s home where police found more blood inside. 

“He seen all the blood and she was in there," Lewis said. "He's like, 'where’s the baby, what did you do with the baby?' She said, 'I put on somebody’s doorstep.'"

But that claim is something investigators said they have no reason to believe. Police said Richardson has shown no concern for her baby’s well-being and is not cooperating with the investigation. 

Police are still asking for help from the public.

If you have any information on the baby’s whereabouts you are asked to come forward. Anonymous tips can be made on Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS(8477). 

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Susan Richardson (Orlando Police)