Baby Girl’s Body Found in Trash; Woman Arrested : Crime: A Santa Ana 19-year-old was booked on suspicion of murder after the infant’s body was recovered from the bottom of a Dumpster.

A Santa Ana woman was arrested on suspicion of murder Monday after the body of a baby girl believed to be hers was found in a Dumpster, police said.

Alejandra Baena, 19, was booked into the Anaheim City Jail after police recovered the baby girl’s body from a Dumpster behind an apartment complex in the 800 block of South Anaheim Boulevard about 5:30 p.m.

Officials at the scene estimated that the baby had been dead for several days. Residents in the nearby apartments said there had been an odor since Saturday.

An autopsy was scheduled for today.

Lt. Ray Welch said the age of the baby was not immediately known. He said police were first alerted by an anonymous call at 1:30 p.m. Monday that there was a dead baby “in a container” near the apartment complex. At the direction of another witness, officers searched a large bin used for commercial waste, Welch said.

Welch said officers enlisted the help of a local sanitation crew to empty the Dumpster. After sifting through debris for two hours, Welch said, the body was discovered at the bottom of the Dumpster.

Anaheim homicide detectives tracked down Baena after questioning residents in the vicinity, Welch said.

At the apartment complex, residents said Baena was a gentle-natured woman who baby-sat for Maria Candidad Romero’s three children.

Romero said that she did not know Baena had been pregnant.

“She hid it,” Romero said.