Police are hunting a young woman who appeared to give birth in a petrol station toilet before leaving her baby to die by taking off without the newborn.
Cops in Houston, Texas have released crystal clear CCTV footage of the woman they believe left the child in the lavatory after a visit to the Shell garage in April.
A customer found the infant in the bathroom at about 4:30 am and it had sadly passed away by the time medics reached the scene.
In the footage, the woman who looks Hispanic and is in her mid-twenties rolls up in a white Cadillac before entering the store and taking off soon after.
Police said she is a ‘person of interest, believed to be the infant’s mother.’
However, her relationship with the chid cannot be confirmed. “We really don’t know what the circumstances are or who she is in relation to the infant,” a spokesperson told Law&Crime.
Police said she used the restroom for around 15 minutes and the child was found an hour afterwards.
“No one else went inside that bathroom, and [the newborn] was not there when she walked in before,” said Houston Detective Caleb Browning.
Houston police also said that detectives do not know whether the baby was still born or died after the mother had given birth.
Investigators are still trying to determine the infant’s cause of death. Harris County’s institute of forensic science are in the midst of an inquiry.
Cops are at a loss as to what to do next and have turned to urge the woman to turn herself in.
“It appears that she gave birth in the restroom,” Browning said during a press conference.
“I’d like to let her know that we just want to talk to her, we just want to find out some more information, want to be able to put in some answers to the situation. It’s tragic that it’s played out the way that it has.”
