MUSKEGON, MI -- At first glance, Arleen Clements thought she was looking at a "doll baby" half buried in the dirt behind an exit door Monday, Nov. 11 at Trinity Manor apartment complex in Muskegon.

But when Clements, a janitor at the complex, took a closer look, she realized her gut was telling her otherwise.

"I just opened the door and looked down and saw it. My mind told me it wasn't a baby. I looked down closer to it. I saw a little leg and little toes. I stood there thinking, 'Am I seeing what I'm seeing? Could it be a doll baby?'" Clements said.

But there was something unmistakably real about the object she saw there, head buried in the dirt, small torso and legs exposed.

"Its big toe had the little wrinkles on it," she said.

"A doll doesn't have little wrinkles on its toe like that. I just knew it was a baby then. I had that urge to touch it and I tried to talk myself out of the idea that it was a baby. Even after we got the police officer here and he was over there, and we were standing off to the side, we thought they might come back and say I'm just a silly old lady being silly. But then he walked over and said, 'I think you're right. We think it's a baby.'"

Authorities have arrested a 17-year-old Muskegon High School student whose grandmother lives at Trinity Manor apartments where the baby was discovered by Clements around 3 p.m. on Monday. The baby's body was found face down in a mound of dirt just a few steps from an exit door down the hall from the grandmother's apartment unit.

Clements, who has worked as the apartment complex's janitor since March, said she went to get her manager as soon as she found the infant's body.

"I touched the baby's back. The head was still buried, but the body was exposed. I then just went into shock. I couldn't figure out how to get the door back open. I came into the office and I asked my manager to lock up and come with me," she said.

"We opened the door and she looked and she didn't really think it was a baby. I said, 'It's a baby.' She looked at me like how I felt -- like I was crazy."

But after a couple minutes, Clements said the manager also saw what she saw. The two women stood there together and agonized over the discovery.

"I said, 'Look at its little toe.' She looked and then she lost it," Clements said. "It was that perfect little foot."

The grandmother of the jailed teen declined to comment for this story. Police have not said whether the infant was a boy or girl or the cause of death. It isn't clear how long the child was there, although Clements said authorities told her the child was likely there about a month before the body was discovered.

Clements believes the infant was clearly a newborn at the time of death – no bigger than a football.

Clements said for her own peace mind, she would like to know more details about the child. She sees the image of the infant's body every time she closes her eyes.

"It's so vivid. I could draw you a picture. I haven't slept," she said. "Once the police came, it was crazy from that point on. It was just crazy and those next few hours are just a blur. It's not something that you can believe," she said.

"You start wondering how long it was there. Was it there crying while I was working in the building? I would like to know: Was it a boy or a girl, and I would just like to know how long (the baby's) been there."

Authorities on Tuesday, Nov. 11, didn't have much more to add as the investigation continued. A Muskegon Police Department officer was back at the apartment complex on Tuesday to interview Clements.

Muskegon Public Safety Director Jeffrey Lewis said he didn't expect much more information to be released on Tuesday, in addition to what was already confirmed. The teen remains in the Muskegon County Jail lodged on homicide, but she hasn't been formally charged at this time.

A warrant has not yet been signed and because the county building was closed for Veterans Day on Tuesday, she will have to remain lodged in the Muskegon County Jail as the investigation progresses.

Clements said she does not know the teen, but knew she would visit her grandmother at Trinity Manor.

"How awful it must be to be that confused and not have someone close enough to say, 'Can you help me?'" Clements said. "I don't hate her. I'm sorry for her."

Heather Lynn Peters covers police and fire, and writes a statewide food column, The Spunky Kitchen, for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email her at hpeters@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter @HLPNEWS.