An illegal immigrant accused of abandoning her baby in a bathroom trash can at a California park was arrested Thursday and told law enforcement that the baby was conceived after she was raped in Guatemala, police said.
The 22-year-old woman, whose name has not been released for safety reasons, admitted to investigators that she gave birth to the child June 9, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. She abandoned the newborn two days later at a park in Lynwood, California, out of fear, she said.
A neighbor of the woman was asked to review the surveillance video of the suspect and identified the young mother.
“The sheriff’s department has received many inquiries about adopting this baby, including from our own personnel,” said Lt. John Adams of the LASD Special Victims Bureau. “We’ve had detectives here at our unit, we’ve had fire personnel, we’ve had nurses that treated this baby at the hospital inquire about adoption. Needless to say, this baby is quite the celebrity at this point.”
Los Angeles County has a Baby Safe Surrender program, which means that a mother can surrender her baby at any fire station or hospital in the county legally with no questions asked.
Her bail is set at $100,000 for suspicion of cruelty to a child likely to produce great bodily injury or death.