Las Cruces woman accused of leaving newborn to drown in portable toilet

A Las Cruces woman is behind bars after police say she gave birth in a portable toilet at a recreation site last weekend and left the baby to drown in the blue liquid in the tank below.

Sonia Jimenez, 38, is charged with child abuse resulting in death. Jimenez is behind bars at the Doña Ana County Detention Center. It is unclear if she has an attorney.

The Las Cruces Police Department said in a Facebook post that an autopsy found Jimenez's baby was alive when she was dropped into the toilet tank and "she breathed and swallowed the blue chemical liquid."

"The blue chemical was found in the baby’s trachea, lungs and stomach," according to police.

Police said officers were called around 10:30 p.m. to a hospital after Jimenez showed up "and appeared to have just delivered a baby, but the baby was not with her." Jimenez's boyfriend allegedly told police she had used a toilet at Burn Lake, where officers found the infant.

"Las Cruces firefighters recovered the lifeless baby from the holding tank," according to police. "Investigators believe Jimenez gave birth to a live baby, cut the umbilical cord and placed the child in the holding tank where she drowned."

Police said detectives believe Jimenez’s boyfriend "was unaware she had given birth" and no charges are expected to be filed against him. 

The death of the newborn comes as more and more baby boxes, a sanctioned place to surrender infants, have sprung up across the state. The boxes have gained popularity after high-profile cases in which babies were abandoned, one in a dumpster in Hobbs, and another in a hospital trash can in Artesia.

In December, Doña Ana County Fire Rescue installed the county’s first Safe Haven Baby Box, and the 13th in the state, at Anthony’s fire station. The box is temperature-controlled and designed to allow a parent to anonymously surrender a newborn under 30 days of age. When the box door is closed, an alarm is sent to emergency personnel to respond.

Journal Staff Writer Algernon D'Ammassa contributed to this report.