A woman living in New Taipei was taken into custody on Thursday after admitting she dumped her newborn baby girl in a garbage truck in Xinzhuang District earlier in the day, according to local police.
The 43-year-old woman, identified by her surname Chen, was detained around noon by New Taipei police at her place of work in Neihu District, neighboring Taipei, where she works as an accountant.
The newborn baby and placenta were discovered still connected and wrapped in a plastic bag by a garbage truck operator at the intersection of Zhonggang and Zhonghua streets at 6:50 a.m., when he was about to use the garbage crusher, police said.
The operator immediately reported the discovery to the local police, who said the child was already not breathing and was dead.
After a thorough examination of the truck's dashcam video and all the garbage bags, Chen was identified as having dumped a bag of garbage into the truck after riding on a bicycle to the site, police said.
Police visited her residence in Xinzhuang, where she lives with her husband and two children, only to find that she had gone to work at an office in Neihu, where she was detained about an hour later.
After being questioned by police, Chen admitted dumping the newborn before going to work. She told police that she felt an extreme abdominal pain early in the morning, and the baby slipped out while she was taking a bathroom break. Chen said she panicked, wrapped the baby in a plastic bag and took her to the garbage truck.
An initial forensic examination found that the baby had been conceived about seven months earlier and had the umbilical cord around her neck. An autopsy will be carried out to determine whether she died before or after the birth, according to prosecutors investigating the case.
Based on Taiwan's law, Chen could be sentenced to a prison term of six months to five years if she is found guilty of disposing of a dead body. However, if she is determined to have caused the death of the child as a result of abandoning her she could receive a life sentence. -Central News Agency
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