SPRING VALLEY, N.Y., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The mother of Baby Angel, whose body was found in a recycling bin in suburban New York, has confessed and is charged with murder, police said Wednesday.
Maria Oliva Guaman-Guaman of Spring Valley, a 23-year-old native of Ecuador who had been deported previously, allegedly smothered her newborn son, possibly because she thought she couldn't afford another child, city police Chief Paul Modica said. The woman has a 2 1/2-year-old daughter, who was placed in foster care following her arrest.
Guaman-Guaman was being held without bail following her arrest and arraignment Tuesday on a second-degree murder charge, the Journal News of White Plains reported.
The infant was found Nov. 12 in a recycling bin outside a convenience store not far from Guaman-Guaman's home. The child still's umbilical cord was still attached.
"Today is a sad day. We're all parents. I cannot fathom killing a newborn child," Modica said, adding, "We always see the worst in people. It doesn't get much worse than this."
The Journal News said relatives who lived with Guaman-Guaman said they didn't know she was pregnant.
"I would have helped her with the baby," said her brother Luis Guaman, 26. "I helped her pay her rent and utilities when she was pregnant with [her daughter]."
Juan Guaman, 40, said he always counseled her ... "but she never said anything."
