A 19-year-old mother was arrested Tuesday after the body of her four-month-old daughter was found inside a dumpster in South Los Angeles.
The infant was discovered at about 10:30 p.m. Monday near the 5200 block of Alba Street, across from Holmes Avenue Elementary School.
Martha Serrano Jimenez, a nearby resident, was taking out the trash with her daughter when she noticed an unusually heavy black plastic bag inside the dumpster.
Serrano Jimenez used the flashlight on her cellphone to look inside. At first, she believed the bag contained a doll and said, “una muñeca,” but soon realized it held an infant, according to Fox LA.
Her daughter called 911 as Serrano Jimenez, several neighbors and the emergency dispatcher tried to perform CPR on the baby.
At about 4 a.m. Tuesday, the infant’s grandparents, Herman Johnson and Laura Lacy, saw a report stating that the dead baby had six toes on her left foot—a distinctive feature shared by their granddaughter.
The couple hurried to Johnson’s apartment in South Los Angeles, located only a few hundred yards from where the body had been left, according to the news outlet.
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“To be found in a dumpster, a dirty dumpster. It just broke my heart. I don’t know what to do, man. I don’t even know what to say,” the infant’s grieving grandfather told the news outlet.
After investigators showed Serrano Jimenez a photo of Johnson and Lacy’s granddaughter, Luna, she confirmed that the child pictured was the same infant she had found in the dumpster.
When questioned by authorities, the mother showed a cellphone image and claimed the baby was safe. Lacy, however, recognized that the image came from an older video based on the infant’s clothing. She also noticed that the baby’s car seat was sitting unused in the bedroom, Fox LA reported.
Los Angeles Police Department officers sealed off the apartment as a crime scene while detectives from the Abused Child Unit were called in. Investigators detained the teenage mother shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday.
The LAPD’s Homicide and Abused Child Units are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the infant’s death. Authorities have not announced formal charges against the mother.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office is working to formally identify the infant and establish the exact cause of death.
