Two Women Found A Newborn Baby In A Shopping Cart — 53 Years Later, She Found Them

March 4, 2026

In 1972, a newborn baby was discovered in a shopping center parking lot in Ohio.

Fifty-three years later, the two women who found her finally embraced her again — and the reunion was nothing short of extraordinary.

Rita, Darlene and Pearl / Credit: news5cleveland.com

Pearl Marshall was adopted in Cleveland in 1972. She grew up, became a Girl Scout, later a music teacher, and married her husband, Jack. But one piece of her life remained missing: the story of her beginning.

That changed when Ohio opened previously sealed adoption records. Pearl requested her original birth certificate — but instead of answers, she received what’s known as a “foundling report.”

“It was a foundling report,” she said. “A Jane Doe certificate. It says, ‘Jeanne Westgate.’”

The birth certificate listed her birthplace as Westgate Shopping Center.

Years earlier, Pearl’s adoptive mother had shared a quiet suspicion — that her daughter might be the baby from a newspaper article she remembered reading about a newborn found in a parking lot. Now, the pieces were starting to fit.

Pearl searched online and found a brief newspaper headline: “Abandoned Baby Found at Plaza.”

Determined to learn more, she reached out to police. That inquiry was eventually forwarded to Chris Gerrett, the historical researcher for Fairview Park. Gerrett was immediately captivated by the mystery.

“I don’t golf. I don’t travel. This is what I do for fun!” Gerrett said.

Although no police report survived, Gerrett uncovered additional news articles describing the baby — dressed in yellow and wrapped in a blue blanket — found late on August 20, 1972.

Her next mission: find the two young women who had discovered the baby that night.

After combing through property, school, and probate records, Gerrett tracked down a phone number connected to one of the women’s families.

“I called him… and told him I was looking for a couple women who found an abandoned baby at Westgate in the ’70s, and fingers crossed he didn’t think he was talking to some lunatic and hang up on me!” Gerrett recalled. “It was dead silent, and after a very long pause, he said, ‘My mother told me that story years ago.’”

She had found them.

What Happened that Night

On a late summer Sunday in 1972, two friends — Rita Marshall and Darlene Gilleland — were leaving a movie theater at Westgate Shopping Center when they noticed a shopping cart pushed against their car.

Inside it was a paper bag.

“The bag was rustling,” Gilleland remembered.

“I had to get in close because it was dark,” Marshall said. “And I saw her little face, and I said, ‘Darlene, it’s a baby, it’s a baby!’”

The newborn was just hours old, dressed in yellow and wrapped in a blue blanket.

They called police and stayed with the baby all the way to the hospital. There, she was examined, declared healthy, and given the name Jeanne Westgate — “Westgate” for where she was found, and “Jeanne” after the nurse who cared for her.

She was later placed with child services and eventually adopted.

But Marshall and Gilleland never forgot her.

“I’ve always thought about her,” Marshall said. “Wondered how she was. What she was doing.”

A Reunion 53 Years in the Making

This past summer, thanks to Gerrett’s persistence, the women reunited.

“There were a lot of tears, a lot of talking, a lot of laughing, and a lot of hugging,” Gerrett said.

“I feel like our long-lost baby has come home,” Marshall said with a smile.

The women even returned to the shopping center where it all began. The movie theater is gone, but the shopping center remains. The exact spot is now behind a Lowe’s store — a quiet place holding an extraordinary history.

“We always felt like someone was watching to make sure we found you,” Marshall and Gilleland told Pearl.

For the two women, the reunion brought closure.

“I won’t forget the day that we found her,” Gilleland said. “And I won’t forget the day that we found her again!”

Today, Pearl finally has a story — one filled with compassion, determination, and a reunion that took 53 years to complete.

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