Inset, left to right: Avia Cantrell and Camron Baker (Tarrant County Jail). Background: The Fort Worth, Texas, motel near which an infant was found dead in a dumpster (Google Maps).
A Texas mother and her boyfriend face serious criminal charges after the woman’s newborn daughter died in a motel bathroom and the boyfriend allegedly discarded the infant in a dumpster, according to police.
Avia Cantrell, 23, is charged with capital murder of a person younger than 10 in connection with the baby’s death, the Fort Worth Police Department said. Her boyfriend, 26-year-old Camron Baker, is charged with abuse of a corpse.
The case began Sunday, Oct. 18, when a homeless woman searching through a dumpster found the body of a baby girl inside a bag outside the Drummers Inn, a budget motel on Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth’s Western Hills neighborhood.
Police arrived at about 8:30 p.m. after receiving reports that the bag containing the deceased infant had been found just outside the dumpster, according to a police report obtained by Dallas-based ABC affiliate WFAA.
A motel guest who watched detectives work at the scene expressed disbelief to the television station. “Don’t put it in a trash can,” the guest said. “Babies don’t go in trash cans at all. You could have given the baby to me. I would have taken the baby and did something like taken it to the hospital or something.”
Investigators believed the infant had already been dead for several days when she was discovered, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Dallas-based Fox affiliate KDFW.
Police said the security camera pointed at the dumpster was not operational. Investigators continued gathering evidence outside the motel while asking the public for information.
A potentially important lead came the following day.
Police received a request from Cantrell’s sister for a welfare check. The sister told officers that Cantrell was pregnant and nearing her due date.
According to law enforcement records cited by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the sister also said Cantrell had previously concealed or failed to acknowledge pregnancies and births. She feared the dead infant could be Cantrell’s child.
Officers went to Room 205, where Cantrell had reportedly lived with Baker and three children for more than two years.
During an interview with detectives, Cantrell allegedly admitted that she gave birth to the baby in the bathtub. The infant was full-term, but Cantrell reportedly told investigators that she left the baby face down in the water for about 30 minutes, according to the charging document.
Cantrell said she called Baker at work to tell him she had given birth. By the time he returned, the baby was dead, police said.
The couple allegedly kept the infant’s body in a bag beside the bathroom toilet for four days while they considered what to do, according to the affidavit.
Baker told police that neither he nor Cantrell sought medical assistance after he arrived because they did not want to “catch a case,” according to the charging document.
He allegedly told investigators that he placed the baby in a brown floral bag and threw it into the motel dumpster.
Cantrell is being held without bond in the Tarrant County Jail. Baker was not listed as an inmate at the time of publication.
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