LOWELL, Ind. » A 9-year-old girl in northwestern Indiana found an abandoned newborn baby wrapped in a towel in her family’s backyard.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Department says the girl told her mother, who carried the baby inside and called police to their home in Lowell on Monday. Police say the baby was found with the umbilical cord and placenta still attached. They think she could have been there as long as a day.

The baby was taken to a hospital and is expected to recover. Lowell is about 50 miles south of downtown Chicago.

Police searched the area with dogs and a helicopter but didn’t find the mother. Police collected evidence from the scene and are investigating when the baby was born and why she was in the backyard.