LAGUNA HILLS : No Clues to Mother of Suffocated Infant

The mother of an abandoned newborn found dead on a deserted street last weekend apparently never sought medical care, which is making it difficult for sheriff’s investigators to learn her identity, officials said Thursday.

“To our knowledge, she never visited a hospital,” Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said. Investigators had placed local hospitals on alert Saturday night after a passing motorist found the baby suffocated in a plastic trash bag on Aliso Creek Road, near Glenwood Drive. They asked hospital staffs to report any woman who visited with postpartum complications.

“We are still working the case, but we are no better off than we were,” Olson said. “But these are very difficult cases to investigate. There is usually very little of an evidentiary nature at the scene. Our best hope is that somebody driving by saw something.”

Two obstetricians said earlier this week that unless the woman suffered complications, she probably would have been all right without medical attention.

Olson said that while it is difficult to believe, it is possible that not even the woman’s family and friends knew she was pregnant.

On at least five other occasions in the past year a newborn infant has been found dead in the county. In three of the cases, the mothers were arrested, although one of the women was released when the coroner could not prove that her baby was born alive. No arrests have been made in the other two cases.

“I just wish that women who find themselves in this situation would realize that there are plenty of adoption agencies who would be happy to take her baby,” Olson said.