BY ALEX PIAZZA
TRAVERSE CITY -- Bruce Maki didn't know what to think when he looked out his front window and saw a city police car and an ambulance.
"Did somebody die? Did someone commit suicide?"
Those thoughts ran through Maki's head when he saw authorities parked outside his Griffin Street residence in Traverse City around 12:15 a.m. Tuesday.
"I was just trying to piece together something," Maki said.
Authorities had the answer, though it raised many troubling questions. They found a newborn baby dead in the basement at the house next door to Maki's home.
Traverse City police searched the residence, at 216 Griffin St., early Tuesday after a 15-year-old girl was treated at Munson Medical Center for injuries "consistent with those that occur during normal birth," according to a police statement.
The girl remains in the hospital, but authorities refused to comment on her condition.
"We've still got a lot of questions," said Police Capt. Brian Heffner.
Heffner would not comment on whether the newborn was hidden in the basement and said it could take up to a week for authorities to decide whether to file criminal charges.
Police went to the girl's residence shortly after she was admitted to the hospital with hemorrhaging. Authorities refused to release her name but said she lived there with her grandfather.
A search warrant for the residence was suppressed in 86th District Court.
Two detectives transported the infant's body Tuesday to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids for an autopsy.
Grand Traverse County Medical Examiner Dr. Matthew Houghton said it appears the girl gave birth between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday.
"It's hard to tell whether it was a natural born child or whether it was assisted in birth," Houghton said.
Aimee Sandula works for the Women's Resource Center in Traverse City. She gave birth to her first child at age 17 and shares that story with local teens.
"It's kind of that fear of the unknown," Sandula said. "I think that a lot of them are scared and just kind of frightened. They don't know what their peers are going to think about them."
The Grand Traverse County Health Department reported 12 child deaths in 2007, according to its most recent report. The 2008 figures will not be available until next month.
Only one of those deaths was related to a homicide, county reports show.
