The woman, Amy Giordano, was last heard from when she talked on the telephone with a friend in Florida last week, three days before the boy was found, investigators told the Wilmington (N.J.) News Journal.

The boy, discovered Saturday by a nurse at Christiana Hospital when she returned from her lunch break, appeared clean and cared for. He had a note in his diaper that gave his name as John Vincent, although Giordano's 11-month-old son was named Michael DiGirolamo.

Giordano's landlord in Hightstown, N.J., identified the boy after seeing a picture of him accompanying a news story. Police have received corroborating identifications from a doctor who treated the boy and a friend of the mother's, the newspaper report said.

"Please help my baby John Vincent I can no longer take care of him," the note read. "Lost job, lost medical. God have mercy on me."

Col. Thomas MacLeish of the state police described the note as a "plea for help." While Giordano could face prosecution for abandoning her son, MacLeish said that investigators are primarily concerned with her welfare, the News Journal said.