Alabama teen mom charged with murdering newborn; police say she put baby in duffel bag, tossed into Dumpster
Published 9:47 pm Thursday, August 24, 2023
Dothan Woman Charged with Capital Murder For the Death of her Newborn Child
On Thursday August 24, 2023, the Dothan Police Department was contacted by medical staff at Southeast Health and advised a female was there attempting to recover a child she claimed she had left at their facility on August 13, 2023, with one of their employees in the hospital lobby.
The female stated she gave birth at her residence in the 1100 block of Tate Drive on August 13th and within the first few hours she took the newborn child to the hospital and gave the child to an employee and left. The female stated she did that because she did not want the child and it cost too much money.
The female’s family was unaware the female was pregnant or had delivered a child until yesterday, Wednesday August 23, 2023.
That’s when the family of the female became concerned and wanted to recover the newborn child. The female and family members went to Southeast Health this morning attempting to find the person the newborn child was given to because that is what they were led to believe by the female.
As the investigation began, it was quickly determined the female never went to Southeast Health on the date she alleged. A formal interview was conducted with the female who attempted to continue her same story.
When presented with the fact we had proven she never took the newborn child to the hospital as she claimed, she told investigators she had taken the newborn child and wrapped him in a blanket and placed it into a trash dumpster at an apartment complex on the west side of town.
She stated when she placed the newborn child in the dumpster, he was still alive. Investigators went to that location and located a trash compactor attached to a dumpster.
The dumpster was seized by the Dothan Police Department and taken to the City of Dothan land field where investigators and officers sifted through the contents. During that process, the remains of a newborn child were located wrapped in a mattress protector that was in a zipped-up duffel bag.
Those remains have been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery for confirmation that those remains are in fact the missing newborn child.
The mother of the newborn child, Jakayla Ashanti Williams, 18 years old of Dothan, has been charged with one count of Capital Murder.
Williams had no connection or affiliation with the apartment complex where she left her newborn child at. It is unknown why she chose that location.