CARLSBAD, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s a shocking case out of southeast New Mexico. Last month, law enforcement was led to infant remains buried off Queens Highway in Eddy County. The mother of the baby confessed to accidentally smothering and then burying the child. No charges have been filed so KRQE News 13 is not naming anyone involved.
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It all started in August when family members of a woman reached out to the Carlsbad Police Department with concerns they hadn’t seen her baby in months. “On September the 5th, detectives with our criminal investigation division began to follow up on this information,” said Carlsbad Police Department Captain Jessie Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said they were able to locate the mother and her boyfriend and working alongside Eddy County Sheriff’s Deputies, the two were brought in for questioning.
Woman: “Personally, after I had the baby, I had a lot of rough times. I had depression really really bad after having her and I took medication for that.”
The woman first told officers she and her boyfriend were living in a car and she felt it “wasn’t okay to have a baby living in the car like that” so she said she took the baby to a friend in El Paso who lives in Juarez.
Deputy: “How do you get in contact with her to check on your baby?”
Woman: “She told me she was going to get a Facebook and make one and talk to me through it, that’s all she told me.”
The woman claimed she got a new phone and doesn’t have her friend’s number and said she took the baby there two months ago which would have been around July.
Deputy: “You understand that all this is because we need to make sure that K******* is okay, you understand that?”
The story started to fall apart when deputies interviewed her boyfriend.
Boyfriend: “After that, we ended up taking the baby around February and then we didn’t go to my dad’s place until after that.”
That was a five month difference from the mother’s claims which raised some questions.
Deputy: “We feel ya’ll aren’t being truthful with us about the situation okay?”
The woman slowly began to confess.
Deputy: “You fell asleep on her?”
The woman told deputies she accidentally fell asleep on her child, smothering her, nearly a year ago and then buried her off a property on Queens Highway. She then took deputies out to the grave.
Deputy: “She’s underneath the rock?”
Mother: “Yeah.“
“As a defendant, people have certain rights and protections so we want to make sure as investigators that all of those bases are covered,” said Rodriguez.
The Eddy County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating this case.
