Abandoned baby found in holdall in car park traces parents on ITV Long Lost Family
ITV Long Lost Family: Born Without A Trace will focus on the 'Baby in Pink' Sarah Meyers, its youngest ever searcher.
Sarah Meyer will be remembered by many as the 'baby in Pink'. The 24-year-old was abandoned by her mother when she was a newborn baby and hit the headlines after being found in a holdall sitting in a multi-story carpark when she was just an hour old, wrapped up in pink towel and a white shawl.
Sarah is now the youngest person to search for a relative on ITV Long Lost Family: Born Without A Trace.
Dubbed 'Baby in Pink' by the press at the time, Sarah's discovery was a huge national news story and led to a nationwide search for the mother of the tot. Sarah even appeared on This Morning with a police sergeant, as cops went to desperate measures to locate her family.
Then host of the ITV show, Judy Finnegan, told viewers at the time: 'This little sprog was abandoned in a multi-story carpark. She was barely an hour old, weighing just 7lbs.'
However all efforts led to dead ends despite many public appeals and Sarah's birth mum didn't come forward. She was adopted at the age of three months old by mum and dad Jo and Pierre, who already had another adopted daughter, Jess.
Viewers of the Long Lost Family spin off will see the emotional journey everyone ends up on when Sarah attempts to find out the truth behind her birth story. The programme, hosted by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, attempts to help foundlings, which means people who were abandoned by their birth family as babies, sometimes in unusual places including a phone box, a cardboard box or church steps.
The upcoming instalment will reveal that Sarah's umbilical cord had been cut when she was found, but not clamped, meaning it could have been a home birth.
Baby Sarah was then sent to hospital where she was under the care of a host of nurses who took her under their wing.
Sarah says: 'On the news, I was the Baby in Pink because I was in the pink towel wrapped in the blanket.
'I was named Caroline after the nurse who looked after me and Pembrooke after my car park. It's like a little secret identity of mine. Now my middle name is Caroline."
Sarah, who still owns the town and holdall she was found in, opens up about her close relationship with her own family and says that she and sister Jess were always told they were adopted, as writes the Mirror.
She went on: 'I want my birth parents to know that they shouldn't feel any remorse because I've had a wonderful life. But I'd like an explanation because it is something that is missing, to know where I come from. Why was I abandoned?'
Sarah goes back to the car park she was found in as part of the episode and is left wondering who would leave a baby in such a busy area.
She said: 'I was an evening baby and 30 minutes to an hour old. So I was literally fresh out of the womb.'
She also gets a letter from a police evidence box, which was sent to investigating officers 10 days after she was discovered in the car park.
The letter gives no clues, and is typed and unstamped.
It reads: 'Please look after my little girl. I love her so much, but just can't cope with another baby. Thank you to all the police officers involved, hospital staff, and the members of the public for their help. Thank you.'
As part of the episode, Sarah is reintroduced to Police Sergeant Wendy Whiting, the first on the scene when she was found and someone who stayed with her case for the duration of its development.
Wendy reveals when the baby was found, the person who discovered her thought she'd found a bomb at first.
Wendy says: 'I remember the radio message coming out and thinking, 'Did I just hear that right?' An abandoned baby, no clothes on, we were concerned.'
The ITV research team are helped by Sarah's young age and are able to access documents quickly compared to more historical investigations.
They soon establish who her birth parents are and find out that her mum was in her late teens when Sarah was born, and already had a child.
However, Sarah's birth mum is not as easy to track down, and doesn't respond to an approach by researchers.
Sarah, who now lives in Northern Ireland with her partner Shannon and has a cybersecurity degree, says: 'It's good to hear that she's at least alive and is out there. It leaves the door open for her to come and meet me if she wants to. I'll never close that door. I respect that it's such a big thing for her. I understand that she might not be ready. I want her to see that I've lived a good life and that I'm not angry with her.'
There is good news also as Sarah's birth father, who has a partner and a daughter, reveals he never knew of her existence but is keen to get to know her. He stays anonymous to protect the birth mum's identity but is overcome with emotion as he says: 'It's very upsetting to know that my daughter was just left there in that situation. Anything could have happened to her.'
Sarah's birth dad then wonders if his late mum would have seen her baby granddaughter and not known, as she'd worked at the hospital unit where Sarah was taken to.
As Long Lost Family fans are accustomed to, there's then an emotional reunion and exchanging of photos as Sarah meets her father and they note their similar physical attributes, and common interests.
He says: 'My daughters can get to know each other and we can all be a family together.'
Sarah adds: 'I've been waiting a long time, I just didn't think it would be possible. He was as I imagined and more, beyond what I expected. I can't wait to get to know him more. The past is in the past and the adventure is only beginning.'
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