Police booked 19-year-old Takiyah Babers on suspicion of murder as detectives continued investigating her infant daughter’s death.
LOS ANGELES — A 19-year-old mother was arrested on suspicion of murder Tuesday after an infant girl was found unresponsive in a South Los Angeles trash bin and later pronounced dead at a hospital, according to police and published reports.
The Los Angeles Police Department identified the woman as Takiyah Babers, the biological mother of the child. Police said Babers was taken into custody without incident and booked on suspicion of murder. Her bail was set at $2 million, according to published reports. The arrest is an allegation, and authorities had not announced a conviction or final determination about how the child died.
Police 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 estimated that the girl was between 4 and 6 months old.
Initial police reporting described the death as a homicide investigation. Investigators said early in the case that there were few witnesses and that detectives were trying to determine how the baby came to be in the dumpster. Authorities did not immediately release a cause of death or publicly describe evidence establishing how the child died.
A woman who discovered the infant while disposing of trash told local news outlets that she initially believed she had seen a doll. Police said the child had been found wrapped in a blanket. Investigators did not immediately disclose how long the infant had been in the dumpster or provide a detailed chronology of the hours before she was discovered.
Before police publicly identified Babers, relatives who spoke with Los Angeles news outlets said they feared the infant could be their granddaughter, Luna. Laura Lacey said descriptions of the child’s clothing appeared to match what her granddaughter had been wearing. At that stage of the investigation, police had not publicly confirmed that the baby found in the dumpster was Luna.
Later reporting identified Babers as the infant’s biological mother and said she had been arrested in connection with the death. Published accounts citing police said Babers was booked on a murder charge. Authorities had not publicly disclosed a suspected motive in the reliable reports reviewed, and the circumstances leading to the child being placed in the dumpster remained under investigation.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Juvenile Division is handling the continuing investigation. Detectives were seeking additional information from anyone who might have knowledge about the case. Police had not publicly released a final medical determination explaining the infant’s death in the reports available Tuesday night.
Babers remained accused, not convicted, as the investigation continued. Additional details about the evidence supporting the arrest, the medical findings in the infant’s death and Babers’ next court proceedings had not been publicly confirmed in the reliable sources reviewed.
Author note: Last updated September 29, 2026.