The unborn baby of a 17-year-old Illinois girl survived her mother's fatal shooting on Christmas Day, the New York Daily News reported.
Authorities in Dolton, Ill. discovered Eva Casara laying between two apartment buildings, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head around 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
Investigators believe Casara was shot a few blocks away and then dumped in between the buildings, where she was most likely hidden for about 40 minutes before someone found her and called 911.
"We're taking it hour by hour, day by day," said the teen's grandmother, Fannie Casara, who stood by her granddaughter in her hospital bed, urgning her to hold on for her baby.
"You fight hard to save this little tiny baby," Casara remembers telling her Eva. "I'll do everything in my power to help raise your baby."
First responders rushed to the scene and transported the pregnant teen to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she died the next morning. However, doctors were able to save her baby, born at 1 pound and 5 ounces.
The baby, named Baby Doe by medical personnel, was listed in critical condition.
Casara's relatives said they plan to name the baby Lailani Paris Casara -- the name the mother wanted.
"She looks like her mother," the teen's grandmother added. "She's beautiful, and she's so tiny. All those tiny fingers and toes."
Officials said they do not believe in any possible motives yet. The family also said they don't know why anyone would attack Eva.
"I don't want to speculate," Fannie Casara said.
But the teen's mother, Estrellita Casara, said they want justice served for the slain teen.
"I want my baby back. She didn't deserve that," she said. "My princess. I miss her so much. ... She's as beautiful inside as she is outside."
