Newborn Found in Trash Asphyxiated, Officials Say

A minutes-old baby found dead in an apartment complex Dumpster was asphyxiated before being placed in a garbage bag, Escondido police said Wednesday.

Police also said they found a soiled diaper from a larger baby in the same bag, prompting them to fear for the safety of the second child.

“Our main concern is protecting this child. The first one didn’t have a chance, and the second one does if we get involved now,” said Lt. John Wilson.

Police said that three tips they received since the baby was found Friday morning have led nowhere.

“We don’t have lead one on this case, and we really need one,” Wilson said. “We just need to be pointed in a direction.”

Autopsy results this week show the baby had been carried to full term and had been asphyxiated, although police would not disclose what was used to suffocate the child.

A red, white and black-striped cotton bath towel was used to wrap the baby and the placenta. The towel then was placed in a plastic garbage bag which was left in a Dumpster at the Cross Creek Apartments in the 300 block of W. El Norte Parkway , Wilson said.

The diapers, which were also found in the garbage bag, were large enough to fit a baby of 22 to 35 pounds and ranging in age from about 1 to 2 1/2 years, Wilson said.

The body was found by a long-time Escondido resident, who was rummaging through the trash collecting aluminum cans, police said.

Police believe that the baby had been placed in the bin Thursday evening or early Friday, since “everything was really fresh, and the towel was still wet, and it was not at the bottom of the Dumpster,” Wilson said.

Social service workers said cases of abandonment of newborns by mothers are “fairly rare,” occurring a few times a year. Cases in which a woman has actually killed her newborn are even less common.

“We don’t see too many stories where the child has actually died. Normally, they have been found in some way, either on the proverbial doorstep, or sometimes they have the child in a hospital and they just abandon it there,” said Carol Mange, assistant deputy director of San Diego County’s Childrens Services bureau.

“Most of the mothers tend to be young teen-agers with some emotional problems and a lot of social isolation” and lack the ability to make difficult decisions, Mange said.

“They don’t feel that they have anyone to turn to and ask for help, so they feel that they have to take care of the problem herself,” Mange said.

In these cases, the father is usually long gone, Mange said.

“Either they’ve found out about the pregnancy and split, or they don’t even know about it,” Mange said.

“Sometimes, the woman has a family, but again, she doesn’t feel she gets a whole lot of support from the family, and the family is kind of oblivious to the problems that she is facing,” Mange said.

There have even been cases where an obese woman has abandoned a child, and her family didn’t even realize she was pregnant, Mange said.

The existence of another child, as in the Escondido case, is even more rare, said Mange, who does not know of any other such case.

“If there already is another child, that child is at risk, not necessarily for being killed, but at least it is in danger,” Mange said.