Corona Police responded to a call at about 5:20 p.m. Wednesday at Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center about an injured woman. Upon arrival, hospital staff told officers a 24-year-old woman may have given birth, but did not have a baby with her.
The woman told officers she had given birth earlier in the morning at home, but thought the baby was stillborn and left it in a dumpster in the 2200 block of Treemont Place in Corona, police said.
Police found the baby's body and sent it to the Riverside County Coroner's Office for autopsy.
Any criminal charges will be dependent on the results of the autopsy, police said.
"It's terrible and nobody wants to hear about that. There's such a better way of handling that," said Lynn Mata with the Corona Fire Department.
California has a safe surrender law that allows people to give up their baby within 72 hours after birth to a hospital or fire or police station. Parents can reclaim the baby if they change their mind within two weeks.
