A Stoke-on-Trent teenager has revealed she can't stop thinking about the harrowing moment she discovered a blood-covered baby abandoned at a bus stop.
It was just meant to be a normal car ride home to the Potteries for Talitha Beales.
But July 11, 2017 was a day that would change the former Thistley Hough Academy student's life forever.
She was just driving with her dad Daniel Braxton when she spotted something looking strange and out of place in a bus shelter. Incredibly, it turned out to be a newborn baby.
She screamed hysterically, and at first her dad thought she was playing a prank.
Two years on from that fateful day, 19-year-old Talitha told StokeonTrentLive's sister paper Wales Online: "I remember every second.
"It's still raw in my mind. As dad drove past the bus stop, I saw the baby covered in blood, it still had the umbilical cord attached and I thought it was dead.
"My dad didn't believe me at first. He thought it was a prank. But we rang the ambulance and we heard her cries. She was taking her last breaths. I didn't know what to think.
"It's crazy. You don't expect to find a baby in a bus stop."
Because Talitha was so distraught, it fell to her and her dad to try to save the baby's life as they waited for the emergency services to arrive. When they did, police sealed off the area.
Forensics officers dusted the bus shelter down while a makeshift interview room was set up in a caravan close to the scene, with a police helicopter scrambled to the area.
It is understood the baby girl was left in the bus stop some time between 6am and 7.15am.
Efforts to find the mother began, but was called off a few months later after what was described as a 'painstaking and meticulous' investigation.
Police and social workers from Conwy Council then concentrated their efforts on planning for the baby’s future with a new family.
Today, little is known about the baby and what happened to her. But it's thought she was placed into foster care.
What frustrates Talitha the most is not being told what happened to the baby, whose life she may well have saved.
She said: "The worst thing that annoys me is I haven't heard anything since it happened.
"I practically saved her life. It's horrible."
Now Talitha, who was on her way home to Stoke-on-Trent after spending time with her dad in Wales, hopes to become a veterinary assistant and says the experience has made her 'grateful'.
"It's stuck with me a lot," she said of the discovery in Towyn, Conwy.
"It made me grateful that we were there at the time. "She would have passed away, but we were there at the right time at the right place."
Speaking at the time, Daniel said: “She (the baby) was a fair size, I’d say probably around the seven pound mark.
“She was not tiny, but definitely newborn as she still had the umbilical cord on.
“I gave her a few hard rubs on her chest to see if there was any life in her, and at that point she gave a big gasp and opened her eyes.”
He added: “As I waited for the ambulance I was just cuddling her, telling her everything was going to be all right. Not that she could understand me, but I just thought she need to hear a comforting voice.”
Top stories on StokeonTrentLive
Follow StokeonTrentLive
Download our app - You can download our free app for iPhone and iPad from Apple's App Store , or get the Android version from Google Play .
Follow StokeonTrentLive on Facebook - Like our Facebook page to get the latest news in your feed and join in the lively discussions in the comments. Click here to give it a like!
Follow us on Twitter - For breaking news and the latest stories, click here to follow SOTLive on Twitter .
Follow us on Instagram - Featuring pictures past and present from across Stoke-on-Trent, North Staffordshire & South Cheshire - and if you tag us in your posts, we could repost your picture on our page! We also put the latest news in our Instagram Stories. Click here to follow StokeonTrentLive on Instagram .
