A woman believed to be the mother of an infant girl who was found dead in a South Los Angeles trash bin was detained for questioning Tuesday.
The infant, believed to be between 4 and 6 months old, was located around 10:30 p.m. Monday in a trash bin near 5221 Alba St., a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson said.
Personnel from the Los Angeles Fire Department took the baby to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the LAPD.
The baby’s death was being investigated as a homicide and the LAPD announced that a person of interest was in custody and being questioned along with the initial witnesses in the case. Police did not identify the person who was detained, but a handcuffed young woman believed to be the baby’s mother was seen being led out of the apartment complex by police.
The death was not gang-related and the victim was not homeless, according to the LAPD.
Video from the location also showed the street closed off and police officers investigating the site where the child was found.
Although the baby was not officially identified, a couple told reporters at the scene they believe the baby is the missing 4-month-old child of their foster daughter.
“That was the sweetest little baby in the world. To be found in a Dumpster, dirty Dumpster, it just broke my heart,” Herman Johnson told Fox11. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know what to say.”
He said his 19-year-old foster daughter was being interviewed by police. He said that after learning a baby had been found in a trash bin, he questioned his foster daughter Tuesday morning, who initially told him the baby was sleeping, then changed her story and said the infant was at the baby’s father’s home, but that also turned out to be untrue.
The foster mother of the woman being interviewed by police said she “had no idea she was feeling that way to discard” the baby.
Johnson told reporters the description of the clothing the baby was wearing when she was found matches what the infant was wearing when he last saw her Monday night.