California Woman Charged After Nearly 40 Years for Allegedly Disposing Newborn’s Remains in Dumpster
A team of investigators in California has caught and charged a woman who is said to have thrown away the body of her newborn baby in a dumpster almost 40 years ago.
Riverside is east of Los Angeles. On Thursday, August 8, the Riverside Police Department said in a news release that DNA evidence had helped the Riverside County regional cold case team find a suspect in a case that happened decades ago.
Records from the jail show that Melissa Jean Allen Avila, 55, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of her child.
On October 13, 1987, a man looking through dumpsters behind a business found the body of a baby girl, which is what the cops say happened.
The Riverside County Coroner’s Office said at the time that the baby’s death was a murder, but detectives never found any more proof, and the case went cold.
“Riverside Police Homicide Detectives worked hard on this case, but all of their leads were lost and no suspect was found,” the police said in a press statement.
The case was reopened by the department’s Homicide Cold Case Unit in 2020. With the help of the nonprofit Season of Justice, DNA evidence finally led to Avila being identified as the child’s mother, the release said.
The news release says that Season of Justice helps law enforcement and families who want to solve cold cases through DNA and genealogy by giving them grants.
Police said, “Detectives have no reason to believe the baby’s father had any criminal responsibility in the murder.” Avila would have been 19 years old when her daughter died. No more information has been shared about how the person died.
Police said Avila was found in Shelby, North Carolina, and that city’s leaders worked with U.S. Marshals to bring her back to Riverside County. The jail records show that she was booked into the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, California, on August 5 at 11:30 a.m.
Police say she is being held on $1,100,000 bail.
The Riverside Police Department also said that in 2001, California passed the Safe Arms for Newborns law, also known as the Safely Released Baby Law. Parents of babies younger than three days old can be turned over to any hospital emergency room or fire station without being charged.
On the page for the California Department of Social Services, you can find out about Safely Surrender Baby sites and other things.
In a press release, Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez said, “Thanks to the hard work of our investigators and partners, this victim now has an identity, bringing closure to the case.” “We will continue to work hard to get justice for murder victims and help their families move on.”