Cause of death of baby found in trash bin ruled undetermined
The baby girl was tossed away like a piece of garbage.
Her name -- if she ever had a name -- will probably never be known.
And now, authorities said Wednesday, we will never know exactly what happened to her, either.
Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy said the cause of death for the newborn girl found in a trash bin in the eastern valley last year was ruled undetermined after a three-month investigation.
The girl was found Oct. 29 in a trash bin at the Bella Estates Apartment Homes on Twain Avenue near Nellis Boulevard.
Her body was discovered by chance when a homeless man went digging for scraps.
Her umbilical cord was still attached, and she was full-term. Las Vegas police homicide detectives began an investigation but have been unable to make headway in the case.
Murphy said it still wasn't clear whether the baby was born alive, as police initially thought, or whether she was stillborn.
The case will be listed as a fetal death, Murphy said.
"Was this a live birth? We don't know," he said. "We could not conclusively determine if the child took a breath or not."
After the baby was found, police expressed dismay that parents were discarding their newborns like trash even with better options available.
One of those options is the Safe Haven law, enacted in 2001, which allows parents to legally leave a child within 30 days of birth at an emergency service provider.
Under the law, which was intended to prevent babies from being abandoned, parents would not be criminally charged for their actions and would not be required to answer questions from police.
One of the only known times a person has taken advantage of the Safe Haven law was in April 2010, when a man dropped off a 2-day-old boy at a Clark County fire station.
But over the past few years, newborns in Clark County have continued to be found in trash bins, bathrooms and other unsafe places.
On June 10, 2009, police found the body of 21-month-old Shia Travis in a trash bin at the La Mesa Apartments on Sierra Vista Avenue, near Swenson Street.
Authorities first called her Baby Jane Vista Doe.
William Marshall, now 40, was arrested on charges of murder and sexual assault in the girl's death. Prosecutors have said they will pursue the death penalty.
In September 2009, 19-year-old Carmela Camero was arrested after police said she suffocated her baby at her Henderson home.
Police also tied Camero to another baby death, the dumping of a stillborn infant in a trash bin at the MGM Mirage in June 2006. Authorities did not recommend criminal charges in that case.
Camero, who was 16 at the time, told detectives she panicked after giving birth in a hotel room. She wrapped the baby in a towel and tossed the bundle in a trash bin outside her room, police said.
Camero, now 21, remains in the Clark County Detention Center awaiting trial on murder charge in the 2009 case.
On Mother's Day 2008, a baby boy was found dead, shrouded in a pillowcase and towels inside a gift bag in a bathroom at the Excalibur. The baby's umbilical cord was intact. Police have yet to identify the newborn's parents.
Anyone with information in the latest case is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or homicide investigators at 828-3521.
Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.
