Mother of baby found dead at Fort New Bedford in 2023 appears in court – NBC Boston

A 22-year-old woman accused of leaving the body of her infant son at Fort Taber in New Bedford, Massachusetts, last year went on trial Monday.

Daniela Michell Escobar-Mejia appeared in New Bedford District Court on Monday and was charged with improper disposal of a corpse.

The body of her baby boy, initially called “Baby Doe” before investigators could determine his identity, was discovered in a thicket next to a hiking trail on Saturday, Dec. 9, according to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

The child’s remains were discovered in a plastic bag wrapped in a blanket by a woman and her niece walking near Fort Taber around 12:40 that afternoon, prosecutors said. Neither they nor a nearby man who called 911 after the woman who discovered the body screamed could be linked to the baby’s death, investigators concluded.

The baby’s official cause and manner of death will not be released until Baby Doe’s autopsy is completed. The district attorney said it is “imperative” that anyone with information about what happened to him come forward.

The body was taken to the Massachusetts Medical Examiner’s Office, prosecutors said, but due to decomposition, the cause and manner of death could not be determined. The child was allegedly abandoned in the park on Nov. 6, more than a month before his body was found.

Escobar-Mejia was identified through surveillance footage, prosecutors said. DNA analysis confirmed she was the child’s mother. She was released on bail and ordered to follow orders from the Department of Children and Families throughout the proceedings. Her next court date was scheduled for Sept. 12.

“I would like to thank investigators for their efforts in this very sad and tragic case,” District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III said in a statement.

Since the baby’s remains were found, activists have worked to raise awareness about Massachusetts’s protection law to prevent another child from suffering the same fate.

Over the weekend, the remains of an infant were found at Fort Taber in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Now activists are trying to raise awareness about the state’s Safe Haven law, which offers desperate parents a safe way to leave their newborn behind.