When TikToker Hilary Shepard (@hilaryshepardivatox) was five years old, she found an abandoned baby in the woods. At the time, she was living on Long Island with her parents. They moved, and then her mother got pregnant with a baby boy.
She started telling Hilary that this was going to be her baby. Hilary really started to believe it and became obsessed with the idea of a baby.
On her birthday, she received a doll as a present and loved it immediately. But when she realized the doll was not an actual baby, she got mad and prayed for her own baby.
One day, she was playing in the woods behind the house. As she wandered deeper into the woods, she came across a giant willow tree that looked like it was from a fairy tale.
All of a sudden, she heard what sounded like a crying baby. She parted the long branches of the willow tree and saw a baby girl sitting under the tree.
The baby was fully clothed with a full head of curly hair. She was about 10 months old and couldn’t walk yet. Hilary picked her up, but she was really heavy.
It took a while to drag the baby back to the house. Finally, they arrived, and she brought the baby to her bedroom. The baby was wet and cold, so she dressed the baby in some doll’s clothes.
Then, the baby started crying, and Hilary could not get her to stop. She went into the den, where her mother and grandmother were deep into a game of Scrabble.
She told her mom that she found a baby in the woods and asked if she could keep it. Her mother said yes without looking up.
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At the time, they had a live-in housekeeper. Hilary told her that she needed some food for the baby. So, the housekeeper made a dish of applesauce. The baby was really happy to see Hilary again.
She fed the applesauce to the baby. Soon enough, she smelled something foul. While she was struggling to get a diaper onto the baby, her mom walked in. Her jaw dropped, and she started freaking out.
Her mom asked Hilary where she found the baby, but she refused to tell her. Her mom called the police to report the missing baby, but no one had called in about a missing child.
“So then, my mother grabs the baby and starts walking around to all the houses on our block,” said Hilary. “There were only four houses on our entire block. My mother starts ringing the doorbells and comes back a half hour later.”
No one had claimed the baby. She called Hilary’s dad, who was out playing polo, and made him come home. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
It was a frantic woman with curly blonde hair who claimed to be the mother. She grabbed the baby and ran off, without hardly thanking them.
Hilary’s mother thought that was odd, so she chased after the lady. The lady said that her husband went to play golf. She thought he had taken the baby with him, but he came home with no baby.
Even at five years old, Hilary was suspicious of the story, but her mom let the lady go.
Five years later, Hilary called her best friend Stacy to come over and play. Stacy agreed, but had to bring her little cousin along. Her cousin was named Holly, and she was the same baby Hilary had found in the woods.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
