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Inset: Pamela Ferreyra (Monterey County District Attorney’s Office). Background: The area where Ferreyra’s newborn was found dead (Google Maps).
A mother from California has been sentenced to over ten years in prison for the tragic death of her newborn son. After secretly giving birth, she placed the infant in a grocery bag and abandoned him, ensuring his demise. Her actions were kept hidden from her spouse and other children.
On Wednesday, a judge in Monterey County handed down a 13-year and four-month prison sentence to Pamela Ferreyra for the death of the infant, who came to be known as “Baby Garin.”
The sentence followed Ferreyra’s agreement with the district attorney’s office, where she pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and felony child abuse concerning the boy’s death in December 1994. She also acknowledged inflicting “great bodily injury” upon her son during these acts.
As stated in a press release by the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, the “partial remains of a 2-to-3-day-old baby” were uncovered near Garin Road in Prunedale, located about 90 miles from San Francisco.
The release further detailed that an autopsy revealed the baby was born alive outside a hospital setting and had not been fed for about 24 hours before his death.
A man collecting cans in the area discovered the boy’s body, local NBC affiliate KSBW reported.
Investigators could not determine the child’s cause of death, and no missing person report had been filed. Despite a thorough investigation by the county sheriff’s office, authorities could not find a viable lead in identifying the boy’s parents.
A cold case task force established by the DA’s office in 2020 reexamined the case in 2024, sending samples of the victim’s DNA for further testing. Those tests revealed that Ferreyra was the mother.
In a subsequent interview with detectives, prosecutors said Ferreyra admitted to abandoning the boy.
“Ferreyra told the investigators that she hid her pregnancy from everyone around her, including her husband and children,” prosecutors wrote. “She admitted [the baby] was born alive in her home. After he was born, Ferreyra said she dressed him, put him in her car, drove him to the remote Prunedale location, and left him there. She never returned to the location or investigated what happened to [the victim].”
The DA’s office said Ferreyra’s guilty plea marked the 10th conviction for a cold case murder since prosecutors established the task force.