A 17-year-old mother in Georgia has been arrested after she was allegedly caught digging a hole in her backyard with the intention of burying her dead newborn baby. Leticia A. Rodriguez was taken into custody over the weekend and charged with one felony count each of concealing a death, throwing away or abandonment of a dead body, and abuse of a dead body in the death of her young son, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Officers with the Marietta Police Department at about 3:20 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 24, responded to a residence on Gramling Street regarding a deceased baby and someone digging a hole in their backyard, Marietta Police Public Information Officer Chuck McPhilamy said during a Monday news briefing.
McPhilamy said the initial call “went out inappropriately” stating that a witness had seen someone “burying an infant” in the backyard, but said that confusion was due to a language barrier.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they “discovered the mother of the deceased infant digging a hole in the backyard in an attempt to create that situation,” clarifying that the infant was “never actually buried.”