Rafaelle Alessandro Carbalho Sousa, 35, faces a charge of attempted felony murder.

BOCA RATON — Rafaelle Alessandra Carbalho Sousa, authorities allege, wrapped a plastic bag around her newborn's head and shoved the infant inside another kitchen trash bag, along with garbage and coffee grinds. And then put the baby into a dumpster. And left her to die.

But she left a receipt in one of the bags. And that, a sheriff's report says, is how she got caught, and why she is facing an attempted felony murder charge.

"How can a mother do this?" Sousa, a 35-year-old native of Brazil, reportedly told a neighbor as deputies scoured the Alister Boca Raton apartment complex the day the baby was found.

Now, authorities say, she has confessed to putting the child, hours old, in the dumpster across from her first-floor apartment, and even going back to check to see if she had died.

A sheriff's office update Thursday did not specifically detail the baby's condition but said she weighs 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and is “cute as a button." She was taken to West Boca Medical Center and is in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families, which is investigating the case. Citing policy, the hospital has declined to comment on the newborn's condition.

Sousa was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail at about 11 p.m. Thursday, charged with child abuse as well as the count of attempted murder, which carries a penalty of up to life in prison. On Friday morning, in court at the jail, Circuit Judge Ted S. Booras ordered her held without bail.

Sousa is due to return to court in 30 days. Nothing was said at Friday's hearing about whether she will undergo a mental health evaluation in that time.

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Booras also noted that Sousa's case has a federal immigration hold, which can indicate questions about the person's legal status in the country. The U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it had "lodged an immigration detainer on (the) unlawfully present Brazilian national" and would seek to deport Sousa if or when she is out of local criminal custody.

A Palm Beach County sheriff's report offers neither details on the circumstances of the child's birth nor any suggestions for Sousa's motive for dumping the baby. It does describe how the two maintenance workers found the infant shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday after hearing crying from the dumpster at the apartments, west of State Road 7 and just north of the Broward County line.

A deputy found a second bag, with the same red tie strips. Inside it were small bags that matched the one found wrapped around the infant's face. Also inside, according to the report: "a large bundle of napkins with a large amount of blood."

A receipt found with the bags listed a local beauty supply store, Fantastic Beauty Supply, a few miles to the southeast in Deerfield Beach.

Karen Duchin, the store's owner, said Friday her store sells to professionals, and Sousa — who a neighbor said has run a nail salon from her apartment — had come in Tuesday to buy supplies. Duchin said she checked her records and gave sheriff's deputies Sousa's telephone number, which she was told deputies cross-checked to find the woman's address. Duchin also said she provided video of Sousa at the store.

"I probably spoke to the police (PBSO) 10 times yesterday," Duchin said.

The report said the address for Sousa, who the store employees knew as Faiel, was in Apartment 124. Deputies obtained a warrant and searched it, finding a box matching the garbage bags seen with the infant. Sousa began to weep and told investigators, "(Redacted), I put the baby in the dumpster."

Sousa told investigators she "tried to get the baby to respond," which suggested she might have thought the child was dead. Over the next three hours, she said, she "went back twice to the dumpster to make sure the baby was dead but never approached the bag because there were people in the parking area around the dumpster."

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The sheriff's office said deputies spoke to the man with whom Souza lives. He said he didn't know she was pregnant until deputies came and she whispered to him that the baby was hers. The sheriff's office said it does not know if he is the father.

An upstairs neighbor who asked that she be identified only as Diana said that in the days before the incident, Sousa had not appeared nervous, and the neighbor had no idea she was pregnant. Diana said she didn't know Sousa by name but the two Brazilian nationals often greeted each other in Portuguese.

On the day of the child's discovery, Diana said, she mentioned what a horrible thing had happened. She said Sousa told her, "How can a mother do this?"



Diana also said Sousa was handling customers at her home nail business when the deputies knocked on her door to question her. Just before that, Diana said, Sousa had come to her, concerned because of her immigration status.

The sheriff's report said a 3-year-old child lives with Sousa in her apartment, but doesn't specifically say it's her son. The upstairs neighbor said Sousa told her she had a 3-year-old son as well as a teenage daughter back in Brazil. Diana, who has a 3-year-old and a 5-month-old of her own, said she and Sousa often would discuss parenting.

A Faceboook page for Sousa, on which she spells her surname Souza, says she previously lived in Miami and in Caxias Das Aldeias Altas, in northeast Brazil. One picture shows her with a little boy she identifies as her son, and another photo shows her with a man walking the boy in a stroller. Yet another shows her with an older girl she identifies as her daughter.

The top posting on Sousa's page is from May 7, the day before the child was born, and shows a message to her from a friend that says, simply, "Linda," Portuguese for "pretty." Messages sent Friday to several people listed on Facebook either as friends or relatives drew no responses.

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A records search showed no cases, criminal or civil, for Sousa in Palm Beach, Broward, or Miami-Dade courts or in federal court.

Booras on Friday ordered Sousa to have no contact with the child or the child's father.

The hearing was delayed while Booras connected with a telephone translation service for Portuguese. Sousa, represented by a public defender, stood, cuffed, showing no emotion. She answered Booras’ pronouncements, through the translator, with one “sí” after another.

Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue also has used the incident to remind people that its fire stations are “safe havens” where a parent who is unable to care for, or support a child up to 7 days old, can hand it over to firefighters, who will take it to the nearest hospital. The agency said it will not ask the person’s name.

Since the program started in 2000, 18 newborns have been turned over, Fire Rescue Capt. Albert Borroto said.

Staff researcher Melanie Mena contributed to this story.

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