Fort Lauderdale Police said Monday that they are investigating the death of an infant who was found discarded in a hotel’s dumpster.
Officers found the baby boy “wrapped in a towel and placed inside a pillowcase” at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Place Hotel and Suites at 3711 N. Ocean Drive on Aug. 10, police said.
Police said the boy was born alive. They said its mother, Alexandria Sladon-Marler, 33, is being treated at a nearby medical facility and will be charged once she has been released, police said.
Police went to the Fort Lauderdale hotel after being told by emergency room personnel at Broward General Medical Center that a woman was experiencing symptoms from a recent pregnancy.
"When she went to the emergency room the doctor asked her what had happened, and she told them it was due to a recent abortion," Fort Lauderdale Police spokeswoman Det. DeAnna Garcia said.
But a medical evaluation of Sladon-Marler did not support her statement, according to police.
Ninja-Like Robber Caught on Camera
Local
Doctors told investigators that she had recently given birth but they were unsure where the baby was. Police found what they called “an unusual amount of blood throughout the hotel room” where Sladon-Marler had stayed.
"They looked around the hotel room and they eventually went to the dumpster and located an infant boy," Garcia said.
A medical examiner's report said there was air in the baby's lungs, which is how they determined he was born alive, Garcia said.
Sladon-Marler was previously released from custody on June 28 after being arrested six days earlier on a contempt of court charge, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Police ask anyone with more information on the case to call detectives Mark Shotwell at 954-828-5517 or Jim Jaggers at 954-828-5970.
