Miami-Dade police

Mother Charged in Death of Baby Found in Homestead Freezer Released From Jail

A mother charged with manslaughter in the death of her 4-month-old baby whose body was found in a freezer in Homestead was released from jail Thursday.

Paola Vargas-Ortiz, who was charged last week in the death of Hugo Alvarez-Vargas, will be under house arrest with a GPS monitor and must be supervised by a family member at all times. Vargas-Ortiz and her attorney didn't comment to reporters as she left jail Thursday.

According to Miami-Dade Police, the baby's body was found on Jan. 17, after Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies made contact with a woman, Vargas-Ortiz, who was attempting to kill herself.

Monroe officials said the woman was found in the parking area of the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon. Authorities said Ortiz gave conflicting stories about the well-being of her child, including one in which she said she threw the baby over the bridge and into the water. The Coast Guard and Fish and Wildlife crews conducted a search as a precaution.

Vargas-Ortiz then told officers her baby was in the freezer at her Homestead home. Investigators immediately responded to the Isles at Oasis in the 2400 block of Northeast 3rd Court and found the baby dead in the freezer.

Vargas-Ortiz was believed to be mentally unstable and was hospitalized, police said. After she was taken to the hospital, Vargas-Ortiz told a deputy "I was bathing it, and it slipped out of my hands," according to an arrest warrant.

The warrant said the baby's cause of death was a lack of oxygen.

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