Estrella Meza-Ojeda has been charged in the death of her newborn son after allegedly abandoning his body in Parleys Canyon.
Heber City Police said the 18-year-old gave birth to a premature baby who needed oxygen to survive in August.
In the two weeks after she brought her newborn son home from the hospital, police received multiple reports from neighbors that the baby wasn’t breathing, that Meza-Ojeda didn’t bring him to appointments, and that she wasn’t giving her son the oxygen he needed. When police visited her apartment Sept. 14, her roommate said the mother and child had disappeared days before.
Police later found Meza-Ojeda at her boyfriend’s home in Kamas. She claimed she had sent the baby to Mexico with a friend to be cared for where her mother lives, but officers couldn’t verify her story.
Last Wednesday, authorities got a warrant for her phone, where they found internet searches including “taking a baby’s life” and “how much time will I serve in prison for killing my baby.”
She told officers she didn’t give her infant son the oxygen he needed because the tube was bothering him and then realized he had died.
Meza-Ojeda told authorities she wrapped her baby’s body in a blanket and left it along the road in Parleys Canyon.
She showed officers the spot on I-80 at exit 131. They found a piece of fabric on the ground but were not able to locate her son’s body. The search is ongoing.
Meza-Ojeda was arrested and charged with criminal homicide, obstructing justice and abuse or desecration of a body. She is scheduled to appear at the Wasatch County Courthouse Oct. 4 at 8:30 a.m.
Until then, she remains in custody at the Wasatch County Jail.
