Days after a Utah teen was arrested for the murder of her newborn boy, searches found the baby’s body along the side of an interstate highway.
Estrella Meza-Ojeda, 18, gave birth prematurely on August 6, KSTU reported. The infant spent 22 days in the newborn intensive care and was sent home with oxygen tanks and an oxygen monitor, with doctors telling Meza-Ojeda her child needed supplemental oxygen to survive.
After the child was born, police received several calls reporting that the child wasn’t breathing, that Meza-Ojeda didn’t bring him to doctor’s appointments, and that she wasn’t giving him the supplemental oxygen, according to KPCW. Officers visited her apartment on September 14, but her roommate told them she and the baby had left days earlier.
They later found her at her boyfriend’s home in Kamas, but the infant wasn’t there. She initially told police she had sent the child to Mexico to be cared for by a family friend near her mother, but police were unable to verify the story.
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On Wednesday, they obtained a warrant for Meza-Ojeda’s phone, where they found searches for “how much time will I serve in prison for killing my baby,” “taking a baby’s life,” “holy death,” “Kamas sewage treatment plant,” “Salt Lake solid waste,” and “garbage dumps near me,” KSTU said.
When questioned again, Meza-Ojeda told detectives that she hadn’t given the baby his oxygen and later realized he had died. She said she’d wrapped him in a blanket and left the body beside Interstate 80 near exit 131 in Parleys Canyon, KPCW reported.
Investigators later found the body a few miles away, near the Lamb’s Canyon exit, KSTU reported.
Meza-Ojeda has been charged with aggravated murder, abuse or desecration of a body, and obstructing justice. She is being held without bail.
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