Woman gave birth inside supermarket bathroom and dumped baby in bin, say police

Officers were called to Golders Green Road around 8am (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Police in rural Louisiana say a Walmart employee found a baby girl in a bathroom a few hours after the infant’s mother gave birth to her and dumped her in a trash can.

The infant was only about 4 hours old when an employee at a Walmart Supercenter in the city of New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish found her just after 7 pm on Friday, Lt. Shael Stringer of the New Roads Police Department told The Washington Post. The mother, Kyandrea Thomas, a woman in her 30s, was found shortly after.

Stringer said a Walmart employee saw Thomas in the bathroom at about 3 p.m. that day and noticed that she was bleeding heavily. Thomas told the employee that she was having some trouble with her menstrual cycle.

At that point, police said, the employee gave Thomas some paper towels and waited outside the bathroom stall, not knowing that she was giving birth inside.

Thomas wrapped the newborn girl, placed her in the trash can and left, police said.

About 4½ hours later, another employee who was emptying the trash can noticed that it was relatively heavy, Stringer said. The employee placed the trash bag on the floor and found the infant, who was discolored and wasn’t breathing.

The baby was revived at the scene and was taken to a hospital less than a mile away, Stringer said. The infant, who is now in stable condition, was later taken to a hospital in Baton Rouge.

“Had it been just a little bit longer, the possibility of resuscitation probably wouldn’t have happened,” Stringer said.

Investigators found Thomas, who was taken to another hospital in a nearby town Friday night because of complications from giving birth.

Thomas was taken into custody after she was discharged from the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Stringer said she will be booked at East Baton Rouge Prison and will be charged with attempted second-degree murder.

Copyright: Washington Post