For years, police have tried to find the person responsible for leaving a dead newborn baby in a Union City, California, dumpster. The infant, whom police named Matea Esperanza, died on May 18, 2009. For more than 16 years, her killer evaded investigators. But thanks to new DNA analysis, her mother, 46-year-old Angela Onduto, now faces murder charges.
According to a release from the Union City Police Department, a man searching for recyclables found the infant at Parkside Apartments. When no one came forward, police named her “Matea Esperanza, meaning ‘Gift from God’ in Hebrew and ‘Hope’ in Spanish.”
Through the years, the police department developed multiple leads in the case. Onduto became a person of interest in 2009 following additional DNA analysis. The work ultimately led to the woman’s arrest in 2025…