Mom of newborn found buried alive in California is arrested

Author: the associated press
Published:
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department via AP

COMPTON, Calif. (AP) – A woman who allegedly buried her newborn daughter alive near a Compton bike path has been charged with attempted murder and child abuse.

The woman was identified Monday as Porche Washington, 33. No hometown was given. She was arrested Thursday in Compton and remained jailed Monday. She has no attorney of record. Bail is set at $500,000.

Washington didn’t want people to know she was pregnant, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Ruiz said.

“Basically she was stressed. She did not want to deliver the baby at first,” Ruiz said. “She was afraid.” She had hidden the pregnancy from family and friends.

She gave birth at a hospital on Nov. 23 and was released with the child on Nov. 26.

The next day, passers-by heard a baby’s cries, and sheriff’s deputies were called to a bike path near a river bed in Compton. The baby, who was wrapped in a hospital blanket, was found under pieces of asphalt in a crevice. She is hospitalized in good condition.

Social service workers have said they will try to find her an adopted home.

Washington was being held at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.

If convicted as charged, Washington faces a possible maximum sentence of life in state prison.

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