Police booked 19-year-old Takiyah Babers on suspicion of murder after her infant daughter was discovered unresponsive Monday night.
LOS ANGELES — A 19-year-old mother was arrested on suspicion of murder after her infant daughter was found unresponsive in a dumpster in South Los Angeles and later pronounced dead at a hospital, according to police and published reports.
Los Angeles police identified the woman Tuesday as Takiyah Babers and said she was the biological mother of the child. Officers responded at about 10:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28, to the 5200 block of Alba Street in the Central-Alameda area after receiving a report of an unresponsive baby in a trash bin. Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics transported the infant to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Authorities are investigating the death as a homicide.
The infant was believed to be between 4 and 6 months old. Police said Babers was taken into custody without incident and booked on suspicion of murder. Her bail was set at $2 million. A murder booking is an allegation and does not establish guilt, and authorities had not publicly disclosed what evidence led investigators to arrest Babers.
The investigation began after a neighborhood resident discovered the child while taking out trash. The baby had been wrapped in a blanket, Los Angeles Police Department Juvenile Division Lt. Dave Hoskins told KTLA. The person who found the infant initially thought she was looking at a doll before realizing it was a baby, according to published reports. Emergency personnel were then called to the scene.
Earlier Tuesday, investigators had described the case as an active homicide investigation and said a woman had been detained for questioning. Police later identified Babers as the infant’s biological mother and announced that she had been booked on suspicion of murder. Investigators have not publicly released a cause of death or said exactly when the child died.
Laura Lacey and Herman Johnson, identified in news reports as Babers’ foster parents, told local television stations that they believed the infant was their granddaughter, Luna. They said their home was the last place they had seen the child Monday evening. Their statements came before police publicly identified Babers as the child’s biological mother.
The Los Angeles Times reported that firefighters responded to the scene for a cardiac arrest before transporting the infant to a hospital. Police were working to determine the circumstances surrounding the child’s death. Authorities had not publicly disclosed a suspected motive as of Tuesday.
Investigators also had not publicly detailed the events leading up to the discovery of the infant. Published reports said detectives were gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses as they worked to reconstruct the child’s final hours. The case remained under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Juvenile Division.
Police said the investigation remains active. Additional details, including the infant’s official cause and manner of death and further information about the circumstances surrounding the case, had not been publicly released.
Author note: Last updated September 29, 2026.