LOS ANGELES : Police Say Baby Was Slain by Mother, Thrown to Dogs

A 19-year-old woman was arrested in Pomona on suspicion of killing her newborn son and throwing his body into the back yard of a neighbor’s home where pit bulls were kept, police said Wednesday

Araceli Banda Garcia, who has two other children, was being held without bail at Sybil Brand Institute on suspicion of murder after her arrest Tuesday night, said Lt. Ron Frazier of the Pomona Police Department.

The mutilated body of the baby boy was found Friday in the yard of a house on Orange Grove Avenue.

Police initially believed that one or both of the pit bulls mauled the baby, but now believe that he was dead when his body was thrown into the yard.

Investigators said Garcia may have been trying to hide the birth from her parents, who live next door to where the baby was found. When questioned, Garcia said she had been pregnant and that she was treated for a miscarriage Friday at a hospital, police said.

But when police obtained a warrant and searched her parents’ house, where Garcia lived, they said they found a full-term placenta in a trash container. Garcia then admitted that the baby was hers and that she had thrown it into the neighbor’s yard, Frazier said, adding that the identity of the baby’s father was unknown.