Body of newborn baby found in California dumpster, mother not charged
Police discovered the body of a dead newborn girl in a dumpster after the mother led them to the location.
On Tuesday, Corona police responded to Kaiser Hospital Riverside responding to a call about a woman, age 24, claiming to be “injured” but the hospital staff determined that she had likely recently given birth and called police.
“She denied it,” said Kim Velasco, a sergeant with Corona Police. “When officers got to the hospital, she admitted she had the baby early Tuesday morning and believed it was deceased.”
An investigation revealed that the unidentified woman did, in fact, give birth to a baby girl at a home earlier that day.
“The woman stated that she believed the baby to be deceased at birth and she disposed of the baby in a trash receptacle near the 2200 block of Treemont Place in Corona,” police said.
Detectives later found the baby’s body in a dumpster behind the apartment complex.
The baby’s cause of death has not been determined.
Officials say the Riverside County Coroner’s Office will perform an autopsy.
The mother has not been arrested and any possible criminal charges have yet to be filed.
The Los Angeles County Safe Surrender program allows parents or legal guardians to confidentially hand over custody of an infant, three days or younger, to any hospital emergency room or fire station in the county.
The person surrendering the newborn can do so without fear of arrest as long as the child hasn’t been neglected or abused.
Since the program’s inception in 2001, 116 babies have been surrendered. Fifty-seven babies have been found dead over the same period, according to Supervisor Don Knabe‘s office.
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