LODI, Calif. (KCRA) – Police investigating the death of a newborn whose body was found in a California parking lot say a woman accused of abandoning the baby has been charged.
It’s hard for Silvia Gonzales, a cashier at Commissary Azteca, to describe how it felt when she saw the body of a baby Thursday morning in the parking lot of a neighboring business in Lodi.
“I wanted to cry,” she said.
Gonzales says her coworker first spotted the baby’s body while he was taking his lunch break just after 11:30 a.m.
“He tried to sit down on the floor, he turned around and he see the baby,” she said.
The man ran back inside the store for help, Gonzales says. That’s when she went outside and saw the body. She says the baby didn’t look to be any older than a few hours.
“When I see it, I try to see if they move or not, but I don’t see nothing,” she said. “I see everything. It’s too hard to see the placenta, to see the baby. It’s hard.”
Surveillance video shows a woman walking into the parking lot and lying down in the spot where the body was found around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. She stayed there for about five hours, leaving just before 3 a.m.
Employees say the next time anyone was near that area as seen on surveillance video was when police arrived on the scene at 11:40 a.m. Thursday.
“It’s so hard. It’s sad to see that,” Gonzales said.
After an investigation, police say 29-year-old Kathryn Grace Copeland was arrested Friday night and charged with abandoning the baby. Police say they worked closely with the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office regarding the charges.
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