An 18-year-old woman has been charged with killing her newborn baby, who needed an oxygen tank to survive, and disposing of his body on the side of a road in Utah earlier this month, court documents show.
The baby, who was prematurely born Aug. 6, spent 22 days in the NICU. The hospital gave his mom, Estrella Meza-Ojeda, oxygen tanks and an oxygen monitor upon his release.
On Sept. 1, Meza-Ojeda took the baby to the hospital after he had stopped breathing, according to NBC Salt Lake City affiliate KSL-TV.
She arrived there without her son’s oxygen. Detectives now believe she had attempted to kill the baby but was “either interrupted or could not go through with it at the time,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
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Two days later, Meza-Ojeda reportedly searched the internet for a nearby sewage plant and garbage dump. Investigators said she also searched “how much time will I serve in prison for killing my baby?,” which they say showed that she was planning the child's death.
On Sept. 11 and Sept. 14, authorities attempted to conduct welfare checks after the baby had been seen without his oxygen tank.
Meza-Ojeda was found five days later without her son and was taken to the local police department to be questioned.
At first, she told police she had sent the baby to Mexico to live with her mother.
She later told police she had borrowed her roommate’s car to meet someone at the store and took her son without his oxygen on Sept. 10.
When she removed the baby from the car, “she noticed he was dead,” an affidavit says. She then told police she drove toward Salt Lake City and “disposed of his body on the side of the road.”
Meza-Ojeda and the investigators then drove to the area where she had allegedly disposed of the body in a blanket.
Police searching the area found a piece of fabric.
“When Estrella saw this fabric, she began to sob,” the affidavit says.
Court documents did not say if the baby’s body had been found.
Meza-Ojeda was arrested and charged Tuesday with aggravated murder, obstruction of justice, and abuse or desecration of a dead body. She appeared in court for a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning, according to online court records.
