A woman from New Mexico is facing serious charges after allegedly giving birth in a portable toilet and subsequently drowning the newborn in the holding tank.
Sonia Cristal Jimenez, aged 38, visited Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces around 10:30 p.m. on February 7. According to a press release from Las Cruces Police, hospital staff noticed she seemed to have recently given birth, yet there was no baby with her.
This unusual situation prompted the hospital staff to alert local law enforcement.
Jimenez’s boyfriend explained that they had been at Burn Lake, approximately six miles from the medical center, and mentioned she had used a portable toilet there.
Authorities have charged Sonia Cristal Jimenez, 38, with the drowning of her newborn in a portable toilet. (Image courtesy of Las Cruces Police)
Police responded quickly to the remote site, where they tragically found the lifeless body of the infant girl in the holding tank of the portable toilet.
Investigators suspect that Jimenez gave birth, cut the umbilical cord and left the child in the holding tank, where she drowned.
The woman’s boyfriend said they had been at Burn Lake and that his girlfriend had used a portable toilet. (Las Cruces Police)
An autopsy showed the baby inhaled and swallowed the sanitation liquid used in the portable toilet, according to investigators. The blue chemical was found in the baby’s trachea, lungs and stomach, which investigators said confirms that she breathed and swallowed the liquid while she was still alive.
Jimenez was arrested on Wednesday and charged with intentional child abuse resulting in death, a first-degree felony. She was booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center and is being held without bond.
Police found the infant girl dead in the portable toilet’s holding tank. (iStock)
Police said they do not expect to charge her boyfriend, as they do not believe he was aware she had given birth.
“This is one of the most heartbreaking and disturbing cases I have encountered in my career,” Las Cruces police Chief Jeremy Story told the Santa Fe New Mexican.
