A Riverside mother has been arrested more than 16 months after her newborn was found abandoned in the rain beside a dumpster.
Astrid Nohemi Lopez Ramos, 26, was taken into custody Thursday at her Riverside home and booked into the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, California, on a single charge of child endangerment, according to police records. Her bail was set at $35,000, and she is scheduled to appear in court at the Riverside Hall of Justice on January 12.
The arrest caps an investigation led by detectives in the Riverside Police Department’s Sexual Assault/Child Abuse unit, which began after the infant was discovered on the afternoon of May 4. A resident at an apartment complex in the 3800 block of Jackson Street had heard crying and found the baby lying uncovered next to a dumpster enclosure, still attached to the umbilical cord and exposed to falling rain.
“On Sunday, May 4, at approximately 2:30 p.m., the City of Riverside’s Public Safety Communications Center received reports of a baby crying inside a dumpster enclosure at an apartment complex in the 3800 block of Jackson Street,” police wrote in their initial statement.
“Responding officers discovered a newborn infant who had been found moments earlier by a resident. The baby was lying next to a dumpster, breathing and crying, with the umbilical cord still attached. The infant had been left uncovered and exposed to the rain.”
Officers determined the child had been delivered only hours before being found. The infant was transported to a hospital for treatment and survived the ordeal.
The case had remained unresolved for over a year as detectives pursued what police described as an “extensive investigation” to identify and locate the mother. The breakthrough came Thursday with Lopez Ramos’s arrest, though authorities have not disclosed what specific evidence led them to her after the prolonged inquiry.
California law allows mothers to surrender newborns within 72 hours of birth at designated safe locations without facing criminal charges or questioning. The Safely Surrendered Baby Law was enacted specifically to prevent infant deaths resulting from unsafe abandonments. Officials emphasized this option in the wake of Lopez Ramos’s arrest, noting that the dumpster where her baby was found was not a designated surrender site.
The apartment complex on Jackson Street sits in a residential area of Riverside, the county seat of Riverside County and the largest city in California’s Inland Empire region. The case drew local attention when it first occurred but had faded from headlines during the lengthy investigation.
Police are continuing to seek additional information about the circumstances surrounding the abandonment. Detective Jessica Iniguez can be reached at (951) 353-7121, and Detective Jarid Zuetel at (951) 826-8714.
Lopez Ramos’s court appearance on January 12 will mark her first scheduled hearing in the case.