Mother, 15, Held as Suspect in Death of Newborn Child

Fullerton police Tuesday arrested a 15-year-old girl on suspicion of murder after she led them to her newborn baby boy, dead in a trash dumpster and wrapped in a plastic bag.

Police arrested the young mother, whose name they refused to release because of her age, at her parents’ apartment in east Fullerton, said Capt. Don Bankhead of the Fullerton Police Department. She is being held at Orange County Juvenile Hall.

The parents were unaware of their daughter’s pregnancy, Bankhead said.

A woman who works near the parents’ apartment heard about the girl’s abandoned baby and called police Monday night, Bankhead said.

Police officers questioned the girl that night at her parent’s apartment where she lived. The girl then led officers to a nearby dumpster, where they discovered the baby, Bankhead said.

The girl told police that she gave birth to the full-term baby boy on Friday alone in the apartment while her parents were away at work, Bankhead said.

“It’s too bad,” Bankhead said. “It’s a very sad story.”

Bankhead said the parents may not have noticed the pregnancy because the girl is “heavyset,” about five feet tall and 140 pounds.

Information about circumstances surrounding the pregnancy and the family’s life were sketchy Tuesday since neither the girl nor her parents speak English, Bankhead said. He said that the police did not yet know who fathered the boy.

An autopsy of the baby Tuesday revealed no signs of cuts or bruises, Bankhead said, but the exact cause of death was pending until further tests were completed.

“If you put a child in a dumpster where he is not to be discovered alive, you have a situation in the category of murder,” said James Enright, chief deputy district attorney for Orange County. Enright explained that murder charges and not child neglect charges would apply in a case where someone acted with malice, intending to do harm.

John D. Conley, deputy district attorney in charge of the county’s juvenile branch, said there was little precedent in the county for such a young mother dumping a child.

Because the girl is under the age of 16, he said, she cannot be tried as an adult. He said the state presumes that anyone over the age of 14 can distinguish right from wrong and so murder charges could be brought.

Individuals found guilty in Juvenile Court of any crime and sentenced to the California Youth Authority can only be incarcerated through their 25th birthday, Conley said, except in rare and exceptional cases where the term can be extended in two-year blocks.