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By Aliss Higham
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A teenager has been charged with capital murder after her baby was allegedly found in a dumpster.
Jakayla Ashanti Williams, 18, was arrested on Thursday after police in Alabama discovered the remains of a newborn at a landfill site. According to her Facebook page, Williams is originally from Fairburn, Georgia, and previously attended Dothan High School.
A statement from Dothan County Police Department says authorities were first alerted when medical staff reported a woman attempting to recover a child she claimed she had left at Southeast Health on August 13. The suspect allegedly told hospital staff that she had given birth at her residence in the 1100 block of Tate Drive, Dothan, before saying she left the baby at the hospital because she did not want the child and could not afford to keep it.
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The statement claims Williams' family were unaware she was pregnant and had given birth until Wednesday, August 23. Police have said Williams' family were "led to believe" the child was in the care of medical staff and went with her to the hospital to search for the person she claimed to have given the baby to.
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However, police were able to prove Williams never visited Southeast Health, nor hand her child over to anyone, according to the statement. It reads: "When presented with the fact we had proven she never took the newborn child to the hospital as she claimed, she told investigators she had taken the newborn child and wrapped him in a blanket and placed it into a trash dumpster at an apartment complex on the west side of town."
Williams did not have any link with the apartment block where the child was left, according to investigators.
While being interviewed, she told officers the baby was alive when discarded.
"Investigators went to that location and located a trash compactor attached to a dumpster," the statement continues. "The dumpster was seized by the Dothan Police Department and taken to the City of Dothan [landfill] where investigators and officers sifted through the contents."
Officers discovered the remains of the child wrapped in a mattress protector placed within a zipped up duffel bag. Police said the body has been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery for confirmation that the remains are those of the missing newborn.
Williams is currently being held without bail.
Newsweek has contacted Dothan Police Department for an update on the arrest.
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