Police: Henderson teen suffocated infant after hiding pregnancy

By Mary Manning

Published Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 | 11:29 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 | 3:08 p.m.

UPDATED STORY: Police: Teen who suffocated infant dumped baby at Strip hotel in 2006

A 19-year-old Henderson woman is in the Henderson Detention Center today, held without bail and accused of killing her newborn son, Henderson Police said.

An arrest report indicated the woman, who lived with her mother and step-father, feared her mother would be angry with her for having a baby without being married. She was also afraid her mother would throw her out of the house and she and the baby boy would live in poverty, the report said.

Carmela Camero was booked into the Henderson Detention Center Wednesday night on a murder charge, Henderson Police spokesman Keith Paul said.

She is accused of suffocating the child after giving birth to the baby Sunday at her home on Desert Pond Avenue, near Horizon Ridge Parkway and Paradise Hills Drive, Paul said.

She called a hospital Monday morning saying she delivered the baby and the baby stopped breathing. Police and paramedics went to the home and found the newborn was dead.

St. Rose Dominican Hospital called Henderson Police after receiving a call from Camero, the police report said.

Henderson detectives continued to investigate the death. After talking with Camero again Wednesday night, detectives accused her of hiding the pregnancy, delivering the child by herself in the home and then killing the child.

Camero said in an early interview that the baby appeared alright and she stayed with him all night. She said he died about five hours after she gave birth in a bathtub at the house.

She said she didn't know she was pregnant, started having back pains, and took a hot bath in an effort to ease the pain. She said the baby arrived head first, but it took five to seven minutes for her to complete the birth, and she feared he swallowed some of the bath water, the report said.

Then Wednesday night, when Camero was interviewed again, she told detectives that she feared that her mother would be angry at her for having the child out of wedlock. She described how she sterilized a pair of scissors and cut the umbilical cord, placing it in a bucket and then taking it to her vehicle. Detectives found the bucket, blood in the bathtub drain and the baby boy wrapped in a blue towel on a bed in a guest bedroom, the police report said.

During that interview, Camero said the baby didn't cry as he lay on the bed, but he was breathing. She left him to go to the store to buy clothes, a suction bulb and diapers. When she returned, the baby was still breathing, but he was less responsive, she told police, according to the report.

She tried to suction the baby's mouth, but nothing came out, the police report said. As she lay with the infant, he began to make coughing sounds. She didn't want his noises to alert her mother, so she forced the baby's face to her chest, she told police. She said she knew bringing him that close would stop his breathing and he would eventually die.

She said she held him close for several minutes until he no longer breathed. She then slept with him until morning when she called the hospital.

In 2001, the Safe Haven Infant Protection Act was signed into law allowing a parent to drop off an infant without fear of arrest or prosecution. The parent or parents can bring a baby less than 30 days old to any hospital, urgent care center, fire station or police station. The appropriate government child protection agency will immediately take the newborn into custody and place the infant in a foster or pre-adoptive home, according to the act.