Sean McDonnell was first given the name John Winters Doe. He was found abandoned outside an Arlington Heights apartment complex on a cold day in 1983. Sean was just hours old when he was left inside a dirty garbage dumpster to die.

“I was a mistake that wasn’t supposed to be here,” said Sean. “I was somebody’s unwanted, garbage.”

He survived thanks to Bruce and Terri McDonnell who heard a strange noise coming from the trash.

“And I said, sounds like a cat. I’ll help it out,” said Bruce. “And then, you know, you look over the top of the dumpster, and you don’t expect to see a baby with still an umbilical cord attached to him.”

It was 50 degrees outside and the baby’s cries were strained. The couple called for an ambulance.

“I brought him to my chest,” said Terri about how she tried to warm him up. “He was very, very fortunate, because he wouldn’t have been able to cry for very much longer because of his hypothermia.”

Some 41 years later, Sean returned to where his life nearly ended.

“Monday would have been garbage day,” said Sean about how close he was to ending up in a landfill.   

After the couple called for help, Glenn Ericksen was one of the first paramedics on scene. He met Sean back at the spot where they first met four decades ago.

“And I got handed you, you very small,” Ericksen said to Sean. “And I’m looking at you, like saying, how could somebody do that to a child?”

That’s the same question Sean has and he’s been searching for that answer.  

“I need to know why,” he said. “Like I was a burden to somebody for being born.”

Sean also wants whoever put him in that dumpster brought to justice. He’s being fully supported on that journey by the couple who found and saved him, then adopted him.

“I want them held accountable to the extent that it will make Sean feel better,” said Bruce.

 Terri, who knows the trauma this causes Sean, said, “We are behind him all the way.”

While his beginning was difficult, he was deeply loved by his new parents.

“Just what a miracle it was,” said Terri as she teared up.

They saw him as a gift and gave him a wonderful life.

“Just warm and loving and just happy,” said Sean about his childhood.

Sean was 5 years old when he learned he had been adopted. He did not know the rest of his story until he turned 34. That’s when he told Terri he wanted all the details of his background. She put together a book called “The Story of You,” and filled each page with pictures of the happy life he lived but also notes and newspaper clippings about his abandonment.

“And it’s just like a load of bricks,” said Sean.

He wanted to track down his biological parents, so he used two DNA testing kits. Sean thought he would find his biological parents were scared teenagers.

“I know who they are,” said Sean, who was surprised by what he found.

At the time he was discarded in the trash by someone, his biological parents were in their 30’s.

“I know one was a mailman. One was a police dispatcher,” said Sean.

He says the DNA results showed he wasn’t his biological mom’s first baby.

“I found a half-sibling who’s born barely a year before I was born,” said Sean.

He dug further and found that baby was safely put up for adoption. Then the couple, who had married, had two more daughters after he was discarded.

“They need to be held accountable,” said Sean.

In 2018, as he reached out to relatives he found through the DNA tests, Sean said he was told to stop contacting them.

“Or there would be harassment charges brought up against me,” said Sean.

In 2019, he went to the Arlington Heights Police Department to pursue criminal charges and was told the case was still open.

“It’s attempted murder,” said Sean.

But now he’s being told it’s too late because there was a statute of limitations back then for attempted murder. Police then destroyed all evidence, including the yellow towel he was found wrapped in when he was left in the trash.

“It was as though I was in that dumpster all over again,” said Sean.

The dark truth for Sean, had he died, charges could have been brought against whoever left him in the trash. There’s no statute of limitations for murder.

“Maybe we can have a prison of their own making, and they’ll live out in the open with everybody knowing the truth,” said Sean.

He plans to file a civil lawsuit against his biological parents hoping to get a court order to get official blood tests. We tried unsuccessfully to reach Sean’s biological parents.

Sean also is talking with the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation – hoping to prevent more cases like his. Illinois’ safe haven law allows parents to safely drop off newborns, anonymously, at hospitals and police and fire stations. This law designed to stop babies getting dumped and killed in places like garbage cans.

Dave Savini

Award-winning Chicago journalist Dave Savini serves as investigative reporter for CBS2.