PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP, N.J., Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A mother in New Jersey set fire to her infant daughter in the middle of the road on Friday, police say.

Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier, 22, was charged Saturday for murder and jailed on $500,000 bond, according to Burlington County prosecutors.


Dorvilier is accused of covering her baby daughter in an accelerant before setting fire to the infant in the middle of the road. Before midnight Friday, witnesses reported a fire on the road to police, who came on scene and discovered the child and put out the flames.

"She said it was poop," witness Davis Joseph told NBC 10. "She said her dog pooped in her car and she was burning the poop on the side of the road."

After hearing the baby scream, Joseph said, he detained Dorvilier by pinning her on the ground after she tried to run from the scene, which he described as "a nightmare."

Police arrested Dorvilier and jailed her at the Burlington County Corrections and Work Release Center in Pemberton Township, N.J.

The child was still breathing when it was airlifted to Saint Christopher's Hospital in Philadelphia with severe burns, but the infant died Saturday morning.

Joseph said Dorvilier denied the baby was hers. An autopsy of the baby will be conducted at the Burlington County Medical Examiner.