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Sonia Cristal Jimenez (Las Cruces Police Department). Background: The portable toilets where Jimenez allegedly left her newborn daughter to die (KOAT).
A woman from New Mexico, aged 38, has been charged with the murder of her newborn child. Authorities allege that Sonia Cristal Jimenez gave birth to a baby girl in a portable toilet and subsequently discarded the infant into the waste tank, where the baby tragically drowned.
The Las Cruces Police Department reported that Jimenez is facing a first-degree felony charge for intentional child abuse resulting in death. The charge comes amid a chilling sequence of events that unfolded on a Saturday night.
According to a statement from the police, the incident came to light around 10:30 p.m. when a local hospital informed them that Jimenez’s boyfriend had brought her in, showing clear signs of recent childbirth. Notably, neither Jimenez nor her boyfriend had a baby with them at that time.
In a report from the Las Cruces Sun, it was revealed that the boyfriend told police they had been at Burn Lake before heading to the hospital. He mentioned that Jimenez had spent a significant amount of time in the portable toilets at the site, which is located about 220 miles south of Albuquerque.
Upon investigation, officers arrived at the location on Burn Lake Road and made a grim discovery. They found the newborn’s body inside the holding tank of a portable toilet. The Las Cruces Fire Department soon arrived to recover the child from the tank, but sadly, the baby was pronounced dead on the scene.
Investigators said the evidence indicated that Jimenez “gave birth to a live baby, cut the umbilical cord and placed the child in the holding tank where she drowned.”
“An autopsy conducted Monday at the New Mexico Medical Investigator’s Office in Albuquerque revealed that the baby was alive when she was dropped into the portable toilet,” the release states. “The autopsy showed that she breathed and swallowed the blue chemical liquid commonly used in portable restroom sanitation. The blue chemical was found in the baby’s trachea, lungs and stomach confirming that she breathed and swallowed the liquid while alive.”
Police said they believe Jimenez’s boyfriend, whose name has not been publicly released, was not aware that Jimenez had given birth at the lake. They do not anticipate charging him in connection with the baby’s death.
An arrest warrant was issued for Jimenez, who was taken into custody on Wednesday morning and transported to the Dona Ana County Detention Center for processing. She is currently being held without bond. It was not immediately clear when she was scheduled to appear in court.