What to Know Police are looking for the body of a baby amid piles of recycling in a Brooklyn facility

The baby may have been put in a supermarket bag then placed in a box and tossed in Queens, which is how it ended up in the recycling

Law enforcement sources tell News 4 the woman they think dumped the child had the baby at home, tossed it, then went to a hospital

Detectives began sifting through mounds of waste in a Brooklyn recycling plant Wednesday in search of the body of a newborn baby they believe a 23-year-old woman dumped in a different borough's garbage the day before, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation tell News 4.

Exclusive video obtained by News 4 shows a woman carrying a bag in South Ozone Park, Queens, bringing it to a tree and dropping it there -- then walking away. Police said a newborn baby was inside that bag.

The bag was then hauled to the Metropolitan Recycling facility at Shepherd and Linden in Brooklyn, according to a company manager and law enforcement sources.

A South Ozone Park neighbor whose windows face the tree where the newborn was allegedly dumped recalled seeing the bag but said he didn't think much of it.

"It was dirty, like wet inside, it was black," said Ambiorix Ramos.

Law enforcement sources tell News 4 the woman they think dumped the child had the baby at home, then felt abdominal pain and went to the hospital, where she told authorities she threw the newborn in the garbage. It wasn't clear if the baby was born alive. She is speaking with police and is not under arrest at this time.



As police searched the recycling facility in Brooklyn Wednesday night, investigators opened a trash bag there and saw what they believed to be blood, according to law enforcement sources. They don't know if it's the newborn's blood, and they will send it to the lab to be tested.

The truck that likely had been carrying the remains arrived at the facility shortly before 2 a.m. Wednesday, the recycling manager said, adding that multiple drop-offs came in between then and when detectives arrived six to seven hours later. That makes the painstaking search that much more difficult.

Police will likely return Thursday to continue the search. They were also searching a house Thursday morning, though authorities would not say whose home it was.

At the mother's home in South Ozone Park, neighbors were just learning the gruesome news.

"We saw the police looking in the sewers and garbage, and I said, 'What's going on?'" said Viviana Ramon.

"How could someone have the mindset, doing that?" wondered Robert Morell. "The least she could have done, hospital -- at least call the ambulance.'

