Body of newborn found in teen patient’s bathroom at New Mexico hospital

The body of a newborn baby was found Wednesday morning at Covenant Health Hobbs Hospital in Hobbs, New Mexico, in a patient bathroom, according to the Hobbs News-Sun. The room was that of a juvenile patient who was with her mother.

The baby was discovered by housekeeping after the patient, a 16-year-old girl, had been discharged from the hospital without telling the staff she had apparently delivered a baby. Hobbs Police Department was called to the scene and is investigating. The baby’s body is with the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque.

Police said they will be giving updates as the investigation continues.

Multiple babies have been discovered in the garbage in recent months, including two others in the state of New Mexico.

In January of 2022, 18-year-old Alexis Avila threw her newborn baby in a dumpster in the same city of Hobbs, New Mexico. Her baby was discovered by passers-by who rescued him. Avila was charged with attempt to commit first-degree murder and abuse of a child resulting in great bodily harm. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Also in New Mexico, 19-year-old Alexee Trevizo went to Artesia General Hospital in January of 2023, complaining of back pains. She denied being pregnant, but lab work run by doctors showed that she was. While in the hospital, she locked herself in the bathroom, where later, her dead baby was found in a hospital garbage. The baby was estimated to have been 38 weeks and there was a large blood spill in the bathroom.

In March of 2023, a newborn baby was found abandoned in critical but stable condition in a trash can in the bathroom of a California gas station.

In May of 2023, a 16-year-old girl was arrested in Cleveland after twin infants were found dead in a garbage can behind her home and she admitted that she “threw the babies in the garbage.” She was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of gross abuse of a corpse, two counts of endangering children, and one count of tampering with evidence. Neighbors stated they had heard crying but did not suspect anything was wrong.

In Chicago in July of 2023, two newborn baby girls were found dead in a bathroom at the Bernice Lavin Early Childhood Education Center of the campus of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. A janitorial crew found a trail of blood, which led to a cabinet in which the babies were found in a black trash bag.

Though they vary by state, Safe Haven laws do exist in every state in the U.S. and each allows parents to surrender their baby no questions asked. Hobbs, New Mexico, recently installed a Safe Haven Baby Box so that mothers of newborns can safely surrender their babies to first responders while remaining anonymous.