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November 27, 2009

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Police: Henderson teen suffocated infant after hiding pregnancy

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

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

Click to enlarge photo

Carmela Camero

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.

Discussion: 54 comments so far…

  1. If she would have KILLED her baby by abortion Saturday afternoon she would have been HAILED as a woman's rights hero and absolutely free-n-clear record! INSANE!

  2. rejco100 - If you look at the dictionary definition of insane, you will see that it actually correlates you your statement.

    insane: utterly senseless

    An abortion would not be performed in the 9th month. So how is it possible that she could have had one on Saturday? No abortion supporter would support such last minute abortion.

    Think before you post.

  3. "Lat minute abortions" happen ALL THE TIME in the USA; it's kept real hush-hush though; many Evangelical Christian Orgs. & churches have HUGE INVESTMENTS in these operations.Shhhhhh!

  4. rejco,
    You beat me to it...I was going to say the same thing.

    ps. to westvegas: you never heard of George Tiller? Your statement is just totally false; I can not even comprehend how it must be for you to be so clueless

  5. Oh my God!

    I wonder how she did it and I wonder how she's able to sleep at night or look at her murderous face in the mirror.

    The photo of this girl scares me. There's something seriously wrong with her. No decent human being could do that to a baby.

  6. Partial-Birth Abortions are a Multi-Billion Dollar Racket in the USA. The baby's birth is started artificially and when the head comes out, instead of sticking a bottle or the mom's nipple in the baby's mouth, the head is pierced with a daggered suction device (some say what is the most painful and horrifying torturous human death possible). The fully developed baby's induced birth is continued and then the lifeless body is thrown in a Hefty Bag lined trash bin.

  7. abortion is just the excuse for those who refuse to be responsible for their own decisions

  8. Eye for an eye... please?

    Someone do her in like she did this poor baby.

  9. How many of you slamming this girl have wombs??

  10. Comment removed by staff.

  11. killerb,

    I know you've previously defended child abusers here. Are you now telling us you are siding with babykillers?

  12. I'd guess there are at least a thousand couples in the Las Vegas Valley alone who are on adoption waiting lists right now... and would've fallen all over themselves to adopt that kid.

    Beyond depressing.

  13. Wasn't that doctor gunned down in Kansas performing abortions during contractions?

  14. This womans mom must be the devil himself according to her. She was 19 not 14 if i'm not mistaken. This is truly a very sad situation that could have been avoided.That poor little soul deserved better than that. I wonder though, Did this ADULT WOMAN use her mother for her actions or was it the baby's father saying come on we can't be rolling like this. GOD bless the poor soul.

  15. The mother and step-father of this girl are worthless. She lived in the same house and no one knew she brought a baby to term? I don't care how separate their schedules might have become, and whatever issues may have arisen between a teenager and the parents. The mother's little girl was with child. Some defense lawyer will now claim that some woman don't know, including the pregnant individual. BUNK! We hear about these cases from time to time. Unless the story about hiding the pregnancy from the mother was just that- a story told to the cops and that the mother actually knew- then there are no innocents here, only bad actors. Either way, there clearly was no responsible adult providing parental guidance, here. I wish the worst upon all of them.

  16. New article, new "facts" -- and this updated version causes one to wonder how clear these detectives were about "you have thr right to remain silent ..."

  17. I'm with SPOCK, how can you be afraid of your own mother so much so that you'd kill your own baby? On the other hand, this woman is 19 years old. An adult! I guess she wasn't afraid of her mother finding out she was having sex. Also, Tiller wasn't performing late term abortions for shi+s and giggles, there were serious medical reasons but you can't argue with idiots as indicated by a few of these comments.

  18. The majority of you posters are idiots.

    Do you have no emphathy for a scared, young woman who either 1) truly didn't know what was happening to her body or 2) was so petrified, or in such a state of denial, about the potential ramifications of being pregnant that she hid the pregnancy and GAVE BIRTH IN A BATH TUB, ALONE. My guess is that you unsympathetic, holier-than-thou posters are probably 1) primarily men and 2) likely supporters of abstinence-only education, which helps create a scenario whereby a young person is too scared, or ashamed, to come forward and ask for help.

    You know nothing about this woman. For all we know, she could have been sexually abused by a family member or family friend, further exacerbating her fear and denial and making it all the more difficult for her to ask for help.

    This is a sad, sad story, anyway you look at it, but villifying this young woman is not the answer.

  19. wtk,

    There were numerous options for a
    NINETEEN YEAR OLD ADULT WOMAN!

    We are not talking about a molested 12 year old. Killing a baby is no answer. Only a monster can kill her own baby.

  20. wtk -- amen

  21. Too scared and ashamed to ask for help, but not too ashamed and afraid to MURDER A NEWBORN BABY?!!

    This girl is an evil murderer.

  22. WTK,
    You're going to dislocate every bone in your body, what, with all the contortionist's twisted positions you assume in order to contrive how the everybody under the sun, except for the one accused of MURDERING A BABY, are bad. The girl is entitled to due process and a vigorous defense. But if guilty as charged, she's a murderer. Since when is holding murderers responsible killing another human being "holier-than-thou?"

    You jump to an awful lot of conclusions about other posters on this thread. But because I am a gentleman, I shall not make assumptions of my own, i.e., that you are a woman who is mad at the world, and at men, in particular. :-)

  23. WTK,

    I am a woman who just gave birth to my daughter two months ago, so don't pretend every commenter on here is a male. I am holier-than-thou in this situation. I didn't hide my pregnancy, give birth to an innocent human being, and then suffocate her until she took her last breath.

    This "woman" is a murderer.

  24. JSpence07,
    THANK YOU for speaking up for all women who DON'T condone this horrible act.

    And a belated congratulations on the birth of your daughter!!! May she be the light of your life. (And hang in there if the crying doesn't let you sleep nights yet!) Our first born just turned 13, last month. It seems like she just came into the world yesterday... Enjoy each moment, even the trying ones. It's a cliche, but it's so true: your daughter will grow up on you SO FAST!

  25. wtk- thanks for the comment.

    The rest of you who sit in judgement without knowing all the facts, shame on you.

    I bet you are all good christians, too.

  26. parents.......enough said

  27. Do we know what kind of pressure this girl was under. Some parents tell their children that if you get pregnant we will disown you and kick you out. That would scare some into hiding a pregnancy. Children do irrational things for irrational reasons. I am in no way excusing this girls behavior but all things are not as YOU believe or would have others believe. I feel for this child and the child she denied life to.

  28. addendum for westvegas: this is from an article on George Tiller...

    "Tiller was one of about a dozen U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions. In the wake of his death, his family decided to close his clinic permanently.

    Carhart was a close friend and understudy of Tiller's. He performed abortions at Tiller's clinic for a week every month, including late-term procedures."

  29. LV4LIFE,

    A 19 year old is not a child! We have men serving our country younger than this woman.

    So what if they disown her and kick her out? She's an adult! I moved out at 18. I'm curious to know if this girl even works or if she was just sponging off of her parents? I'm guessing the latter since she claimed she was afraid her and the baby would "live in poverty."

    Now she'll have the opportunity to live in jail, and hopefully after that she'll get the chance to live in prison!

  30. Too scared and ashamed to ask for help, but not too ashamed and afraid to MURDER A NEWBORN BABY?!!

    she also wasnt' too scared and ashamed to have sex..

    She is 19. no excuse for getting pregnant in the first place and certainly no excuse for killing her baby..

  31. This woman is obviously troubled.
    She didnt know she was pregnant, but she had a bucket and sterilized scissors handy?
    She had a car, I'm sure a cell phone and maybe a boyfriend.
    She had freedom to move about and leave the house, who cares if the parents were tyrants or not.
    She thought enough to get an aspirator, diapers and some clothes? That does'nt sound like someone who wants to kill thier baby.
    What did she do with the baby when she left for the store, hide it or leave it on the bed out in the open?
    They dont tell us if they baby was full term or premie, maybe, just maybe its possible she didnt know she was pregnant.
    How she was able to deliver in silence baffles me, its painful as ever (my sister says her premie birth was painful too)and to do it without drugs and it's your first time-how did she even get out the tub?
    There is a show on Discovery Health I think, with women who didnt know they were with child until delivery!
    I also have a couple of gf's, who are small women who went full term and if they wore baggy clothes, you could'nt tell they were pregnant. So many possibilities, this story just does'nt add up.

  32. No, we don't know every last detail of how this transpired. But I stand by my first point that the parents' role/non-role in this was absolutely awful. And of course, that this young woman could snuff out the life of her newborn is also horrible.
    There is no way society can countenance mothers killing their own babies. The judge and jury can take into consideration her frame of mind on that night (if how she has portrayed it is even the truth), when determining her prison sentence. Fine. But allow her to get away with this, and human life just grew measurably cheaper, on our watch.

  33. A womb is the life support system for a growing baby. A fetus can now survive outside the womb (in intensive care) after only 20-24 weeks and develop into a healthy child given modern medicine. It is still legal to kill that fetus, even though it can survive outside the womb, which defies logic as does this case of a woman aborting her baby after birth. What's the difference, really? Either way, the woman or the womb are the life support system for the developing fetus or newborn. Either way, they will die outside the womb without proper care. Call it pulling the plug on the development of development of this human, abortion, or murder, it's all just schematics.

    Here is a diagram of a partial birth abortion http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/diagram... which often took place up to 7 months legally. Clinton vetoed partial birth abortion legislation, Bush passed it in 2003. Now girls go to Mexico to kill their fetus' when they break up with their BF's and their due date is only a few months away. Is that murder? Legally, not it is. Was it murder when they did it pre- 2003 under the Clintons, Kennedy's, Reids, admins? Sure it was, we've just evolved a little bit as a society. People don't want to know the pain these poor babies suffer before they're snuffed out and chopped into pieces in a Sadistic manner. We tell mothers to talk to their babies in the womb. I wonder what those babies are thinking when they hear the buzz saw warming up in an abortion clinic? "Mommy, please, I love you, don't let them chop me up and throw me in the garbage". The babies tears will remain unseen, the screams unheard. Like I've said before, at least a baby tossed in a dumpster has a chance of being discovered and saved, thus, doing that to a baby is more ethical and moral than chopping it up into pieces and tossing it in the garbage, period! PS. Reid supports killing defenseless fetus'. Vote Tarkanian in 2010!

  34. Henderson, This girl is a minor, not an adult. That comes when you are 21 yrs old. I am sure you know some 19 year olds that would under some circumstancs would never be concidered an adult. Hell I know some 25 year olds that are anything but adults. As I said..." not everything is as you believe or as you would have others believe.

  35. Not being a woman but having children and grand children its hard to beleive you dont know that a child is in your body. Even the so called wicked mother would have to display enough passion after seeing this newborn to help her out. My GOD this was not a puppy, This was a human being! To the people that say well she was only 19 , That's quite a few years on this planet to figure out the mysteries of life.

  36. I just heard that this MINOR female is suspected in the death of the baby that was found in the trash a couple years ago at the Mirage I think. If its found to be true, this girl needs serious help.

  37. Just read that story on the baby in the trash. So that throws out every lie she said about this baby. She should go directly to jail, but she'll get a plea deal and do this all over again in let's say 3 years? Unbelievable.
    Take heed, these kind of people are multiplying like rats in the subway.

  38. Hey Fromnyc2lv what are "these" kind of people"?

  39. LV4LIFE,

    An 18 year old is NOT a minor! At 18 you are legally an adult and your parents are no longer responsible for you! At 18 you have the right to vote, the right to marry, the right to enter the military, the right to enter into legally binding contracts, and the right to be tried for the murder of your children!

    The only thing that happens at 21 is you are of legal age to drink and gamble!

    Do you know you can legally throw your children out of the house at 18? That wouldn't be the case if they were still minors.

  40. Henderson, Go by a 19 year old a drink in a casino or better yet a bottle of booze at the liqur store and then tell that to the police. I think you will find that at least in this state you have commited a crime for furnishing alcohol to a minor.

  41. LV4LIFE,

    YOU ARE AN ADULT AT 18 YEARS OF AGE AND YOUR PARENTS ARE NO LONGER RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU.

  42. If I were on the jury, I'd find her not guilty due to the fact that 5-6 month old babies are legally being cut into pieces and tossed into the garbage. If I were her lawyer, I'd argue she simply committed a late abortion by mother. Until Roe v Wade is overturned, killing babies that can survive outside the womb, be it 5 months old or 9 months olds outside the womb, should be legal. We should also be allowed to abort babies of welfare cases we in higher economic classes feel will be a burden on society (forced abortion). All welfare mothers should be forced to have abortions unless they can show they can support the baby, unless they're white trash in which case adoption is a better option. (It's only murder if they kill a white baby in my opinion)

    I pray they put me on this trial or someone like me who feels that as long as abortion (baby killing) is legal, nobody should be able to tell a woman she has to raise a child on her own and killing that child (or allowing it to be born and not caring for it) should be the mothers choice alone.

  43. PS. Reducto ad absurdum debate style, in case you didn't know.

  44. This baby was alive outside the womb you PINHEAD! What kind of person are you? What,Did your mom not cut the crust off your sandwhich or something? As far as I know Prophets were BORN with reason.

  45. Are babies not alive inside the womb? Can they not feel, hear, think at 4-5 months of development? Can they not survive outside the womb (if born pre-mature or snatched from the womb) at 4-5 months? Are mothers in the USA not allowed to kill those 4-5 month old babies LEGALLY? What type of mother raised such an ignorant dolt to not see that ALL BABIES should be protected by our constitution, not just delivered babies!

  46. If Roe v Wade stands, which is legalized killing of a defenseless baby via allowing the life support system (mother) to terminate the development of said baby at any time (even 5-6 months (20-24 weeks) in most parts of this country) when babies born premature at 20-24 weeks of age have survived many, many times in the US. Mothers can have an abortion up to 8 months if giving birth might endanger her life or the baby is retarded, defective, etc. If 24 week old babies can legally be killed, and those babies could survive outside the womb, is it or is it not murder?

  47. This is First Degree murder, it was premeditated.Life without prole nothing less.

  48. Do you have the ability to state your view as a human, As opposed to the math that your logic dictates?

  49. I want to know how that family last name is named after a car. Is her sibling named Gremlin Camero.

  50. LV4life-the "kind" of people I'm referring to are the ones that lack a moral compass or common sense. It has nothing to do with race, creed, religion, etc. They come in all colors, shapes, sizes, age, nationality, etc. Ignorance is bliss among them.

  51. She KILLED her baby! All of you people defending her are just as SICK as she is... And yes, I have a womb and I am a mother. And for the record, I do believe that abortion is also murder, but to take your newborn baby boy that you've seen, smelled, heard... and to kill him, well that's - I can't even come up with a word since I can't comprehend it.

  52. The RJ just put out an article that says the coroner's office was never able to determine how that baby died in 2006.

    This crazy killer probably figured she got away with it once, just do it again!

  53. The mother should called, President Obama's top science adviser, John Holdren, as a witness.

    He has stated that babies are not human beings and therefore can be aborted.

    So all this lady did was to abort a baby. Just like the late-term abortion thugs do it. They drill holes in the heads of babies in the birth canal right before they are about to breath their first breaths of life.

    Democrats made a hero out of Tiller the Baby Killer.

    Here, they have found another hero, too.

  54. This little creature should find her way to prison as fast as possible. Maybe the other inmates will give her a warm and eventful reception.There is no excuse for this type of criminal behavior.PERIOD!

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