Baby Found in Trash Died After He Was Hit by Car Driven by Mother, Police Say

A 6-week-old boy whose body was found in a Fullerton trash container died of massive head injuries suffered when the infant was hit by a car driven by his mother, Anaheim police said Thursday.

The baby, Michael Alfredo Massip, died Wednesday at the scene of the collision, which occurred in Fullerton about three blocks from where the body was found, Anaheim Police Sgt. John Haradon said.

The baby’s mother, Sheryl Lynn Massip, 23, of Anaheim, was arrested on suspicion of murder Wednesday. She had initially told police that the baby had been kidnaped. Massip remained in the city’s temporary detention facility Thursday on $250,000 bail, police said.

“She was driving the car at the time the baby was killed,” Haradon said, adding that the vehicle, a late-model Volvo station wagon, has been taken into evidence.

Asked whether Massip intentionally ran over the baby, Haradon said, “We’re going to talk to the D.A.’s office and get an opinion on it.” As to whether it could have been an accident, Haradon said, “that’s a possibility but not a strong one at the time.”

The investigation is continuing, and Haradon acknowledged that police are having difficulty establishing a motive.

A neighbor said Thursday that Massip was having a difficult time with her baby son, who cried continuously from colic and a throat problem that prevented him from keeping his formula down.

“She really loved that baby” and had gone to three doctors to try to alleviate the baby’s suffering, Lauri Jonsson, 30, said. “She was going through postpartum depression, I could see that.”

Massip was arrested hours after she called police from her home in the 1900 block of East Sycamore Street at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday to report that the baby was torn from her arms as she was walking with him in a schoolyard.

Body Discovered

“We don’t believe that story,” Haradon said.

Less than two hours after her call, Fullerton police told Anaheim police that the body of a male infant had been found behind a home in the 300 block of North Marwood Avenue in Fullerton.

Police interviewed both parents and determined that a kidnaping had not occurred and that the baby was the victim of a homicide, Haradon said. Massip was alone at the time of the alleged kidnaping, and there were no witnesses to support her story, he said.

Wednesday night, Anaheim homicide detectives, assisted by Fullerton police, “located the crime scene” in the roadway in the 600 block of North Leland Drive in Fullerton, Haradon said.

He described it as “a small residential street” and said police did not know the specifics of how the infant was hit by the car.

“We’d only be guessing. We weren’t there,” he said.

Haradon said police plan to present evidence to the district attorney’s office today and arraignment will occur later in the day or Monday.

Neighbors in Massip’s apartment building said Wednesday that they saw her run into the complex in the morning, shouting, “Someone’s stolen my baby!”

Jonsson said Massip and her husband, Alfredo, were both excited about their newborn.

Jonsson, knowing that Massip was feeling strain and stress from the continuously crying baby, said she told the new mother that she could bring her son over from time to time, which she did, Jonsson said. Massip told her that “she was going crazy” from the constant crying, she said.

Massip “did a number of things” to try to make her baby feel better, Jonsson said.

“I just know she had a very rough time with the delivery and with the baby crying a lot and everything . . . but I can’t believe she just lost it like that,” she said.

Jonsson said she feels compassion for Massip. “I know her life has been ruined by this,” she said.