The body of a baby boy was found in a plastic bag Monday afternoon by officials searching through 60 tons of trash transported from Port Angeles to a dump site near Tacoma.
The newborn infant had been drowned in a toilet bowl, then was disposed in a trash can outside her father’s 12th Street house, prosecutors and detectives alleged Monday as the alleged mother, 16, and her father appeared in Clallam County Superior Court.
The teen, who is not identified because of her age, remained in custody on $500,000 bail for investigation of first- or second-degree murder.
She is due back in court Wednesday. Prosecutors are asking that she be tried as an adult.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams also set bail Monday for the girl’s father — Ronald Eugene Last Jr. — at $10,000.
Last, 41, was charged Monday with being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of methamphetamine, both felonies, and with concealing a birth, a gross misdemeanor.
He remained in the Clallam County jail.
The baby was found amid trash at a private dump in Graham, near Tacoma, on Monday about 2:10 p.m., Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher confirmed.
An autopsy was pending, and DNA testing to confirm the infant’s parentage might not be available for a month or more, Gallagher said.
The search in the Waste Connections Inc. dump lasted about six hours.
It was conducted by Port Angeles police detectives, Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team officers and “more Pierce County agencies than I can name,” said Gallagher, who had expected the search to take several days.
“I have some detectives that are pretty upset,” Gallagher said.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of dead bodies, but when it is a baby it is a whole different thing.”
Two arrests made
The alleged mother was arrested Friday after a neighbor reported seeing a dead baby in an alley trash can.
The container had been emptied by garbage crews before police could arrive.
Since 2007, Port Angeles’ trash is hauled to a transfer station, where it is placed in shipping containers by Waste Connections and trucked to Tacoma.
There, it is placed on railroad cars for final disposal at a super-dump in Eastern Oregon.
Waste Connections was able to isolate the Port Angeles shipping container before the trash was mixed with garbage from elsewhere.
The big blue container was taken to Graham, where authorities conducted their search Monday.
About 70 minutes before the discovery in Graham, the girl with long, black hair made her initial appearance in Clallam County Superior Court in Port Angeles.
She sat quietly between two defense attorneys.
She will appear for an arraignment on Wednesday at 1 p.m. in Clallam County Superior Court, Prosecutor Deb Kelly said.
The infant died shortly after his birth Tuesday at 3 a.m., Port Angeles police have said.
The 16-year-old girl “put her baby face down into a toilet and allowed it to drown for several minutes until it died. Then she threw her son into the trash can outside in a plastic garbage bag,” Port Angeles Police Detective Jesse Winfield wrote in a court affidavit filed Monday.
The affidavit did not elaborate.
The infant’s body wrapped in a plastic bag remained in the alley-side container until city crews routinely picked up the trash the next day, police surmise.
Transfer station
It was taken to a transfer station on the city’s west side and placed in two containers that were shipped Friday by Waste Connections to Graham, about 8 miles southeast of Tacoma.
“Waste Connections has been extremely helpful,” he said.
“They were able to identify the container that [the body] was in accurately.”
Because the body was found in the Tacoma area, the Pierce County coroner will conduct the autopsy, Gallagher said.
“I believe that they will make this a priority,” he said.
“But the DNA testing and all of that sort of thing will take a little while longer.
“After the autopsy, I believe, at some point the body will probably be transported back here to Port Angeles.”
Gallagher said he was not sure what the condition of the body was on Monday, but the baby appeared to be full-term.
Reporter Michelle Esteban of KOMO-TV, a Peninsula Daily News news partner, was at the scene during the search and discovery.
She said about 25 to 30 police officials were searching through the piles of trash — and when the baby was spotted about halfway through the first 30-ton bin, the entire contingent fell silent.
Friday arraignment
Last, the teenager’s father, will be arraigned in Clallam County Superior Court on Friday at 9 a.m.
He faces between 86 and 116 months in prison if convicted because he has previous felony convictions, Gallagher said.
During a search of the 12th Street home Saturday, police found a gun and what first appeared to be a pipe bomb but turned out to be a device that can be attached to the bottom of a car for transporting illegal drugs, “a fairly common method,” he said.
Four other men and several other juveniles also lived at the house, he added.
The 16-year-old girl moved from Pueblo, Colo., where her mother lives, to her father’s home in Port Angeles in October.
Law enforcement in Pueblo has been contacted, and investigators have determined that the father of the baby “is an adult, not a minor,” Gallagher said.
Bail recommendation
Last’s defense attorney, John Hayden, petitioned Judge Williams on Monday to lower the prosecution’s bail recommendation.
“I think $5,000 would be more appropriate,” Hayden said.
But Williams kept it at $10,000.
In addition to the bail, Williams placed a no-contact order on Last.
“So I’m to have no contact with my daughter?” he asked the judge.
“For the time being,” Williams replied.
Court-appointed public defenders for Last and his daughter will be provided.
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The Associated Press and KOMO-TV contributed to this report.
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
