Dead newborn baby found in trash may have been injected with heroin, police say

According to New Mexico State Police, officers discovered the dead infant last week after a man called "with concerns about his unborn child."

"The father said that he returned to his home in La Madera from a trip to find that his unborn child's mother was no longer showing signs of being pregnant," police said in a news release. "When the father questioned the mother about the child, she would not tell the father where the child was."

The caller also told officers that the woman had been using heroin during her pregnancy, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He also heard that she had given the infant injections of the drug "to keep the child from going through withdrawal symptoms," according to the newspaper.

Officers then conducted a welfare check at the Alcalde trailer where the mother was staying, the Journal reported. The woman, who showed symptoms of heroin use, told police that she had passed out after giving birth to the baby, according to the newspaper. When she came to, the infant was unresponsive, she said.

Police said they "smelled the smell of death" inside the home and started searching for the baby, whose body was found inside a tote in a garbage bag, the Journal reported.

Charges are pending until the medical examiner completes an autopsy on the baby, police said.

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