Witnesses: Toddler found after search was injured, had head shaved

HAMILTON, Mass. -- A northeast Massachusetts toddler who was found alive after going missing early Friday was naked, hurt, and her head had been shaved, witnesses tells CBS Boston.

The girl, 2, had last been seen by her parents around 3 a.m. at her home in Hamilton, and they reported her missing around 7 a.m., according to the station. A massive ground and air search was launched and police roped off the family's home with crime scene tape, the station reported.

At a news conference Friday, Hamilton Police Chief Russell Stevens said the girl was located several miles from her home just as police were preparing to issue an Amber Alert. Stevens couldn't say whether the girl was taken from home or if she wandered off.

Stevens wouldn't say where the little girl was found, other than that she was located in an area where a passerby could spot her.

An Ipswich, Mass., couple who say they found the child told CBS Boston she was off the side of a road around 10 a.m. in Rowley, reportedly about eight miles away from her home.

The couple told the station the girl was naked, shivering, and sitting in a pile of leaves with a contusion on her head, which was shaved. The couple reportedly said they bundled her up and kept her in their car until police arrived.

Police declined to say whether or not the child was injured.

A spokesperson at Beverly Hospital confirmed to the station that the girl was being treated there and said she was in fair condition. She was being re-united with her parents there late Friday morning.

The home was being treated as a crime scene out of an "abundance of caution," a Massachusetts State Police spokesman said. Police were conducting interviews and processing several locations for evidence.

"We're trying to put the pieces together right now," Chief Stevens said.