Inset, left to right: Avia Cantrell and Camron Baker (Tarrant County Jail). Background: The Fort Worth, Texas, motel near which an infant was found dead in a dumpster (Google Maps).
A Texas mother and her boyfriend are facing serious criminal charges after the mother’s newborn daughter died in a motel bathroom and the boyfriend allegedly discarded the infant’s body in a dumpster, according to Fort Worth police.
Avia Cantrell, 23, has been charged with one count of capital murder involving a child under 10, the Fort Worth Police Department said. Her boyfriend, 26-year-old Camron Baker, faces one count of abuse of a corpse.
The case began Sunday, Oct. 18, when a homeless woman searching through a dumpster discovered the body of a baby girl inside a bag outside the Drummers Inn, a budget motel on Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth’s Western Hills neighborhood.
Police were called at about 8:30 p.m. after the bag containing the deceased infant was found just outside the dumpster, according to a police report obtained by Dallas-based ABC affiliate WFAA.
A motel guest who watched detectives work at the scene expressed disbelief to the television station. “Don’t put it in a trash can,” the guest said. “Babies don’t go in trash cans at all. You could have given the baby to me. I would have taken the baby and did something like taken it to the hospital or something.”
Investigators later said the infant appeared to have been dead for several days before she was discovered, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Dallas-based Fox affiliate KDFW.
Police also said the security camera pointed toward the dumpster was not functioning. Investigators continued gathering evidence around the motel while asking the public to come forward with any relevant information.
A phone call the following day provided investigators with a potential lead.
Cantrell’s sister contacted police to request a welfare check, telling officers that Cantrell was pregnant and nearing her due date.
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The sister also told police that Cantrell had previously experienced pregnancies and births that were not disclosed or attended by medical professionals. She feared the baby found at the motel belonged to Cantrell, according to law enforcement records cited by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Officers went to Room 205, where Cantrell had reportedly lived with Baker and three children for more than two years.
During questioning, Cantrell allegedly told detectives that she delivered the baby in the bathtub. The infant was full-term, but Cantrell said she left the newborn face down in the water for approximately 30 minutes, according to the charging document.
Cantrell reportedly told police that she called Baker at work to tell him she had given birth. By the time he returned, she said, the baby was dead.
The infant’s body was allegedly placed in a bag and left beside the bathroom toilet for four days while the couple considered what to do, the affidavit states.
Baker told investigators that neither he nor Cantrell sought medical assistance after he came home because they did not want to “catch a case,” according to the charging document.
Baker also told police that he placed the infant in a brown bag with a floral design and threw it into the motel dumpster, investigators said.
Cantrell remains held without bond in the Tarrant County Jail. Baker was not listed as an inmate there at the time of publication.
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