Baby’s body found in freezer in La Camella

[Janet]

Details are sketchy at the moment, and the police were only called out at 6.30 this evening, but it seems that the body of a newborn baby has been found in the freezer of a rented apartment in La Camella. The Guardia Civil are at the scene at present. JA

[NAH]

That's gruesome, like a scene from some horror movie.

[Janet]

Isn't it just. The only other detail at present is that the discovery was made by a family member of the apartment owner.

[Nova]

Not necessarily.  The baby could have been stillborn, frightened young mother panicked, preserved the baby in the freezer until she figured out what to do or built up the courage to tell anybody... I don't think we can assume the worst until more details are available 

We once kept a neighbour's gerbil in the fridge for two weeks because we were looking after it while they were on holiday and it died on the first day.  Different species, same principle...

[Michael]

Whatever the reasons were for her actions be it mental problems or whatever, that mother is one seriously fucked up individual. 

[Briz]

One can only feel sorry for the mother

[Janet]

A few more details are available, though this is still a very early stage of the police investigation. It seems that the discovery was made when the apartment was being cleaned ready for new tenants to move in, the previous occupants  having moved out a couple of weeks ago. The Guardia Civil is trying to trace them, and there is some suggestion that it might be a woman from the Los Realejos area. The baby still had the umbilical cord attached, so it appears likely that it was born in the apartment, though an autopsy will be carried out to determine if the baby was stillborn or died shortly after birth. The alternative is almost impossible to imagine.

[Janet]

The Guardia Civil has taken a 33-year-old woman, identified as M.G.F., and informally named as Maite, into custody. She is accused of the killing of her baby whose body was found in a freezer in a rented La Camella apartment last evening. It is early days in this investigation, so this might turn out to be "responsible for the death of", rather than "murder", so I would urge against drawing conclusions at this stage. All that can be said for sure at present is that she claims to have given birth alone, at night, and didn't know whether the child was born alive or dead. Autopsy results are still awaited to confirm more details. Meanwhile the mother is in the Guardia Civil station in Playa de las Américas. JA

[Janet]

The woman was released from custody yesterday evening and is now with her family. Police say that they need the autopsy results, expected over the next few days, before they can proceed any further.

[Janet]

More details are now available about these circumstances. The baby was a little boy who was born around a month ago. His mother, Mayte G.F., is from La Orotava, but had been in La Camella for a year, and handed the keys back ten days previously. She has two other children, daughters of around two and three years of age, both of whom lived with her, though it seems there might be a further four children, said to be two teenagers who live with her family, and two which had been given up for adoption. Police, however, are treating her, at least at present, as mother of the two little girls and the baby.

Until a few months ago when they separated, her boyfriend had also lived in the apartment. Mayte was unemployed and did occasional cleaning to earn some money, and told police, who say she is profoundly affected by these events, that she found this latest pregnancy to have come at a very difficult time, both economically and emotionally. Neighbours said that they had no idea she was even pregnant. Arona Ayuntamiento say that they had not received any request for assistance from her. JA