Baby boy found dead in trash after 911 call
HAMILTON — A Hamilton mother has been charged with killing her 5-week-old son in what authorities are calling a heinous and shocking crime.
Asuncion “Suzie” Avila-Villa, 25, who lived in an upstairs apartment in the 1300 block of Shuler Avenue, was arrested Tuesday morning, Aug. 25, and charged with murder, endangering children, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.
On Monday morning, Aug. 24, Avila-Villa reported to police that her baby had been taken away by a former boyfriend the previous night and he had not returned.
Detectives said they began investigating the baby’s disappearance when things didn’t add up in Avila-Villa’s story.
In the early morning hours Tuesday, detectives found the infant’s body.
Police said he had been placed in a plastic bag and then put in a garbage can in the alley behind Avila-Villa’s apartment building.
According to an autopsy, the baby, Israel Santos, died of a crushed skull before being placed in the bag, said Butler County Coroner Dr. Richard Burkhardt.
The baby also had a broken arm and low body weight for a child his age, Burkhardt said.
The coroner said the baby boy had been dead for two days before he was found. Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper said the case “stuns and shocks” him.
He said the charges against the woman, who has four other children, could change when the case is presented to a Butler County grand jury.
“It appears one of those options will be capital (possible death penalty),” Piper said.
Piper added that the tampering with evidence charge comes from Avila-Villa allegedly misleading police with false reports, and that there is no reason to believe anyone other than the mother harmed the baby.
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