“There’s a Baby in Our Trash Can:” Couple Calls Police After Mom Abandons Newborn

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 17, 2014   |   5:43PM   |   Kearns, UT

After a woman gave birth, she abandoned her newborn baby by putting the infant in a neighbor’s trashcan. When the Utah woman’s neighbors realized they had discovered the child, they frantically called 911 with an urgent message: “There’s a baby in our garbage can!”

The family told the 911 operator that the baby appeared to be a newborn who was still breathing and who had an umbilical cord still attached.

aliciaenglert“There’s a baby in our garbage can!” the woman cried in the 911 audio, released Tuesday by the Unified Police Department. “I don’t know how to get it out! Neither one of us are tall enough and if I tip it the trash is going to tip over on top [of her],” she explained.

The woman in question was arrested and is now facing attempted murder charges. Officials say she placed the baby int he trash can without providing the infant any care medical support or food.

Authorities indicate the woman told them she was afraid to tell her parents, who whom she lived, about the pregnancy and “she said she discarded the baby in hopes it would die and solve her problems.”

Here’s more on what happened:

While on the phone with 911, the woman went to get her neighbor, Alicia Englert’s father, to help get the newborn out of the trash.

The 911 caller said she had heard what she thought was a cat in her yard and then discovered it was a baby in her garbage can.

As the woman watched emergency crews rescue the baby, she said, “I can’t believe anybody would do this.”

Police later confirmed the infant belonged to 23-year-old Alicia Englert who had just given birth to the baby girl next door.

Englert’s father told Fox 13  back in August he was the one who retrieved the baby from the trash can.

He said he and his wife had no idea the baby was  Alicia’s or that she had been pregnant.