Newborn Baby Found In Trash Bag

HENDERSON, Nev. -- A Henderson teen has been arrested on charges she tried to kill her baby just moments after she gave birth, police told Las Vegas TV station KVVU.

Police said Sarah White, 19, hid her pregnancy from family and friends. Her mother only learned of it when she found White huddled in a bathroom April 3, her newborn stuffed in a white kitchen garbage bag, police said.

Her mother sent her other daughter to call 911 after discovering the baby purple and not breathing, police said.

White's father, Shawn White, a trained paramedic, resuscitated the baby until paramedics arrived and took the baby to a local hospital.

The baby, now 11 weeks old, was turned over to Catholic Charities and put up for adoption.

Sarah White’s parents had asked her for months if she was pregnant and the teen continued to deny it, claiming she was gaining weight, a police report stated.

When White went into labor, she sent her mother to the store, claiming she needed constipation medicine, the report stated.

Instead, she brought the kitchen bag to the upstairs bathroom, got into the bathtub and turned on the water, knelt down and gave birth, the report stated.

After the birth, she tried to cut the umbilical cord, but told police it was too tough to cut through.

After giving up on cutting the cord, she told police she grabbed the bag and a towel, laid the bag on the ground and placed the baby on top of the bag. She told police she cleaned the baby and then swaddled it in the garbage bag.

When asked by police what she planned on doing with the baby if her mother hadn’t found her, she stated: “I have no idea.”

Sarah White told police she didn’t reveal her pregnancy because she was scared of what her parents would think of her.

The Whites' neighbors described the family as nice and said it was hard to believe this happened.

“There’s nothing bad I can say about them,” neighbor Cindy Waitkus said. “(Sarah’s) a great kid, she hung out with my children.”