Talk about baby-faced.
The hunt is on for the parents of "Baby Chloe," an abandoned newborn girl found alive, wrapped in a plastic bag near an apartment complex in Cypress, Texas on Feb. 19, the Houston Chronicle reported.
With no clue who the parents might be, law enforcement has employed the skills of Lois Gibson, forensic sketch artist for the Houston Police Department.
Gibson, who holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Successful Forensic Artist," told the Chronicle she had read about Chloe's case in the paper and wanted to assist in the investigation.
Gibson typically draws composite sketches of wanted individuals based on descriptions by witnesses. Since Chloe -- named by her rescuers -- is clearly unable to give a statement, Gibson has attempted to predict what her parents look like based only on Chloe's appearance.
"[Gibson] took a photo of the week-old baby and did an age progression of what the baby would like and from there, what the mother and father would look like," Harris County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Christina Garza told ABC News.
The network reports that this is the first time law enforcement has tried to track down a child's parents using this method.
That may be because it's not likely to be terribly reliable, at least according to forensic art experts.
"I doubt [the sketches] are going to be accurate at all … not even in the ballpark of likeness," Steve Loftin, head of forensic imaging at the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told ABC.
Loftin pointed out that a newborn's face has not developed enough to give reliable clues as to what the parents might look like. Gibson herself admitted to the Chronicle that there are a slew of factors that might inhibit accuracy.
A child may look much more like one parent than the other, she said. Additionally, she guessed at the parents ages, predicting they were in their early 20s. Weight gain, dyed hair and acne are other wild card factors.
However, Gibson says she has drawn recognizable sketches of parents based only on pictures of children who are 1 or 2 years old.
As for Baby Chloe, Fox 26 reports that hoards of people have been expressing interest in adopting her.
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