Girl Who Abandoned Newborn Arrested

A 15-year-old girl who had abandoned her newborn baby in the dirt of a Palmdale building site was arrested on suspicion of felony child cruelty Friday and told authorities she mistakenly believed the boy had been born dead.

The infant, covered with dirt and blood, was found alive early on Aug. 3 by a worker at the construction site. But it was not until Friday noon that sheriff’s deputies found the young mother after she contacted a local hospital about the baby.

The girl, a Palmdale resident who was not identified, went to Palmdale Hospital Medical Center to check on the condition of the infant after reading of his discovery in a local newspaper, sheriff’s deputies said. She was arrested there and later released to her parents.