HOMESTEAD, FL (WFLA) – A woman was arrested and charged with manslaughter after her 4-month-old baby was found dead in a freezer in a home in January, NBC Miami reported.
Paula Vargas-Ortiz, 37, was arrested Thursday, NBC Miami reports. She is held without bond.
Vargas-Ortiz tried to kill herself Jan. 17, when Miami-Dade Police officers found her in the parking area of the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon.
She couldn’t give a straight answer about the well-being of her son Hugo Alvarez-Vargas, 4 months old. First she told them she threw him into the river, and the US Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife crews searched the river as a precaution.
Then the woman told the investigators that her baby was in the freezer at her Homestead home. They found the body there and the mother was taken to a hospital. She was believed to be mentally unstable, according to NBC Miami.
Vargas-Ortiz told deputies, “I was bathing it, and it slipped out of my hands,” according to the arrest warrant. The warrant stated the cause of death was the lack of oxygen but police didn’t give the official cause yet.MORE STORIES: – KB Home to pay victims, make more repairs after 8 On Your Side probe – Man arrested for ‘sextortion’ of preteen girls, deputies say – Mom: My son should receive stricter punishment after arrest
