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

By Mary Manning

Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 | 11:23 a.m.

A 19-year-old woman in the Henderson Detention Center being held without bail and accused of killing her newborn son had also dumped another baby in a trash bin a Las Vegas Strip hotel in 2006, Metro Police said.

Carmela Camero and her family were staying at the Mirage on a vacation from Reno when she gave birth and left the baby's body wrapped in towels in a hotel trash bin, police said. She was 16 years old at the time and her name wasn't made public because of her age.

Officer Barbara Morgan said the coroner at the time determined the baby was stillborn, so no further charges will be filed against the woman.

Henderson Police spokesman Todd Rasmussen said today his department was working with Metro Police in a continuing investigation.

Henderson Police arrested Camero on a single charge of murder Wednesday night and booked her into the Henderson Detention Center.

It appears that the woman, who lived with her mother and step-father, feared her mother would be angry with her for having a baby without first getting married, a police report said. 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.

She is accused of suffocating the infant after giving birth to the baby Sunday at her home on Desert Pond Avenue, near Horizon Ridge Parkway and Paradise Hills Drive, Henderson Police spokesman Keith 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, Siena Campus, called Henderson Police after receiving a call from Camero shortly before noon Monday, the police report said.

Henderson detectives continued to investigate the death. Camero changed her story several times, police said.

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 did not know she was pregnant, started having back pains, and took a hot bath 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 had swallowed some of the bath water, the report said.

Then Wednesday night, when Camero was interviewed again, she told detectives she feared that her mother would be angry at her for having the child out of wedlock. A Henderson Police officer found bleach and a mop in the bathroom where the birth took place, an arrest report said.

Camero said the baby did not cry as he lay on the bed, but he was breathing. She left him on the bed, wrapped in towels and surrounded by blankets, 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 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.