New Mexico State Police are investigating the discovery of a dead newborn baby found in a trash bag at a trailer in Alcalde after a father called “with concerns about his unborn child.”
The father notified police Saturday, state police reported, with his concerns when he returned from Colorado to his home in La Madera and found his girlfriend no longer appeared pregnant. When the father asked his girlfriend about the child, she would not tell him what happened to the baby.
The father also reported his girlfriend is a frequent heroin user and used the drug while pregnant, reported the Albuquerque Journal Wednesday. Police officers were informed the mother may have injected the baby with heroin.
According to the state police report:
Through investigation State Police officers learned the mother was staying at residence in Alcalde. State Police officers went to that resident to perform a welfare check on the mother and unborn child. Officers found the newborn baby deceased in a trash bag inside the residence. New Mexico State Police Crime Scene Team was called to the scene and the New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau took over the case.
The body of the baby was taken to the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque for autopsy to determine the cause of death, says the report.
According to the Journal, when police arrived at the woman’s camper trailer in Alcalde Friday night, they saw blood on the front porch. The woman said she gave birth to the baby in La Madera on an unknown date and “passed out due to the pain of giving birth.”
The woman said when she awoke she found the baby was unresponsive.
Officers observed the woman showed signs of heroin use, including frequent passing out and awakening.
“Her statements were inconsistent and not making logical sense,” a search warrant affidavit filed in Santa Fe District Court revealed.
Officers also “smelled the smell of death and began to look for the newborn baby,” the affidavit said, and continued that police found a black trash bag near a toilet with a black tote bag inside it that contained the body of the baby.
The father reportedly said he had been told his girlfriend had been injecting the baby with heroin to keep the child from going through withdrawal symptoms.
According to the report, state police have not identified the sex of the baby and no charges have been filed to date.