{"id":106751,"date":"2024-08-13T12:04:28","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T12:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/mother-arrested-37-years-after-her-newborn-was-found-dead-in-dumpster-police\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T12:04:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T12:04:28","slug":"mother-arrested-37-years-after-her-newborn-was-found-dead-in-dumpster-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/mother-arrested-37-years-after-her-newborn-was-found-dead-in-dumpster-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother arrested 37 years after her newborn was found dead in dumpster: Police"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Riverside Police Department<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(NEW YORK) — A woman has been arrested for the murder of her newborn 37 years after the baby girl was found dead in a dumpster in California, authorities said.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 13, 1987, a man rummaging for recyclables found a dead newborn in a dumpster behind a business, Riverside police said.<\/p>\n

Authorities believe the baby was born within hours of being abandoned, police said. The baby girl\u2019s death was ruled a homicide, police said.<\/p>\n

Decades went by without answers.<\/p>\n

In 2020, police said the case was reopened, and investigators joined forces with Othram labs to try to solve the case with DNA technology.<\/p>\n

Forensic evidence was submitted to Othram in 2021 and scientists used that evidence to build a DNA profile for the unnamed baby, according to Othram.<\/p>\n

Riverside police then turned to forensic genetic genealogy, in which unknown DNA is identified by comparing it to family members who voluntarily submit DNA samples to a database, Othram said.<\/p>\n

The forensic genetic genealogy investigation led authorities to potential relatives of the unknown baby, Othram said.<\/p>\n

Authorities said they identified the suspect as 55-year-old Melissa Jean Allen Avila, who was 19 at the time of the newborn’s death.<\/p>\n

A motive is not known, police said.<\/p>\n

Avila was arrested in North Carolina and extradited to Riverside County, California, police said. She was booked for first-degree murder on Aug. 5, police said.<\/p>\n

“Detectives have no reason to believe the baby\u2019s father had any criminal culpability in the murder,” police added.<\/p>\n

Avila’s arraignment is set for Sept. 9.<\/p>\n

Riverside police stressed that California’s Safe Arms for Newborns law — enacted in 2001 — allows a parent to leave a baby three days old or younger at a fire station or hospital emergency room.<\/p>\n

“If the baby has not been abused or neglected, the person may surrender it without fear of arrest or prosecution for child abandonment,” police said.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Riverside Police Department (NEW YORK) — A woman has been arrested for the murder of her newborn 37 years after the baby girl was found dead in a dumpster in California, authorities said. On Oct. 13, 1987, a man rummaging for recyclables found a dead newborn in a dumpster behindRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}