By KIMBERLY EDDS
Article Videos FULLERTON – An 18-year-old woman remains hospitalized under police watch after her dead newborn girl was found hidden in her bedroom early Sunday.
The infant had suffered severe external and internal injuries, authorities said.
Police say the woman was trying to hide the pregnancy from her parents, who were apparently home when she gave birth to the full-term infant in the middle of the night.
The woman has not been arrested, said Fullerton police Sgt. Andrew Goodrich, but she is under police supervision and is not allowed to leave the hospital. Her name has not been released publicly.
The woman is the second young Fullerton mother in the past two weeks to come under suspicion of killing her newborn baby.
Yanira Valderrama, 20, was arrested April 8 at her parents' apartment on suspicion of drowning her newborn baby boy and hiding his body in a trash can in September. According to Fullerton police, Valderrama gave birth to the baby in the bathroom and put him in the toilet when her mother tried to enter the bathroom.
Her mother later found the placenta and called paramedics. Hospital staff called police. If convicted of drowning her son, Valderrama faces 15 years to life in state prison.
In the latest case, hospital workers became suspicious when the 18-year-old woman showed up with her parents to be treated for bleeding, Goodrich said. She showed signs of recently giving birth, he said, but there was no baby.
Hospital staff called police. Officers searched the girl's West Fullerton home and found the infant's body hidden in her bedroom.
An autopsy was performed on the baby, Goodrich said, but a cause of death has not been released.
Authorities are reminding everyone about California's Safe Surrender law, which allows parents to drop off an unwanted newborn at any fire station or hospital within 72 hours of birth with no questions asked.
Dead newborn found hidden in 18-year-old's room | police, woman, baby - News - The Orange County Register
