A Utah woman accused of throwing her day-old baby in a neighbor's trash can told police she was afraid to tell her parents about the pregnancy and thought the newborn's death would solve her problems, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
Alicia Marie Englert, 23, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on Tuesday. The baby girl was fighting for her life in critical condition at a hospital in Salt Lake City, authorities said. Englert told police she had left the baby about an hour before the child was discovered and that she had not received any medical care or food.
Englert's child was found by a woman who heard what she thought was a kitten meowing in the trash bin in the Salt Lake City suburb of Kearns, according to NBC News. There were no visible injuries to the child and information about the child's father was not available.
"We had a young lady make a very, very terrible decision," Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder told NBC.
Utah allows mothers to drop off newborns at hospitals without consequences, leading officials to remind residents that there are resources available for mothers, including a crisis hotline. A handful of infants are dropped off at hospitals across Utah under the safe haven law every year, Al Romeo of the Utah Department of Health told the AP.
It's not very common for a mother to leave a child in a trash can or other unsafe place, but there have been a few cases over the past 10 years.
Seven dead newborn babies were discovered in the garage of a home in Pleasant Grove, Utah, in April. Authorities believe the mother killed six of the infants after giving birth to them over the decade. A seventh baby is thought to have been stillborn.
