The Associated Press

Tue, May 13, 2008 (6:27 p.m.)

Police say an autopsy should show whether a baby was alive before its body was found dead in the trash at a women's restroom at a Las Vegas Strip casino.

Las Vegas police Lt. Lewis Roberts says investigators are trying to figure out who would abandon a newborn child, alive or dead, on Mother's Day.

The body of the baby boy was found about 9:40 p.m. Sunday, wrapped in a hotel gift bag and a pillow case in a restroom near a bank of elevators at the Excalibur hotel-casino.

Investigators are trying to determine if the mother gave birth to the child somewhere in the casino, or if the child was left in the restroom by someone who came in from the street.

Roberts says police are checking hotel records and reviewing casino security video.

But he says detectives may need a lucky break _ like the mother coming forward, or someone who noticed something wrong calling in a tip.