PORT ANGELES — A teen and her father are in custody over the possible death of her newborn, while police prepare to sift through trash for the body of the infant they say was killed.
The girl, who was not identified because she is a minor, was arrested for investigation of first-degree murder on Friday.
Her father, 41-year-old Ronald E. Last Jr., was arrested on Friday for investigation of concealing a birth by allegedly disposing the body of the deceased newborn in a city garbage container behind their home at 116 E. 12th St. in Port Angeles.
A body has not been found, and authorities are making arrangements to search for it in Port Angeles trash taken to a Waste Connections Inc. facility in Tacoma.
“It’s an absolute tragedy,” said Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher.
“We have apparently a dead child sadly, and the 16-year-old in some sense is a victim herself.”
Pipe bomb
Investigators, acting on a search warrant, also found what they identified as a pipe bomb in the garage at the residence on Saturday.
The State Patrol bomb squad placed it in a bomb-disposal vehicle.
The homes on either side were evacuated.
Last and his daughter have not been formally charged.
The girl is being held at the Clallam Youth Center, and her father is in the Clallam County jail.
Gallagher said that the state Department of Social and Health Services’ Children’s Administration have been notified.
Police say the child died soon after it was born at about 3 a.m. Tuesday at the home.
Gallagher said police don’t know the details, but that they “have probable cause to believe that she [the girl] bears responsibility on the death.”
He said that police believe that a newborn died after birth and was disposed of because of evidence found at the home, and interviews with its residents and the people who notified authorities.
Gallagher declined to elaborate on what kind of evidence was found, except that blood was involved.
Garbage from the city bin near the home, where police think the newborn’s body was placed, was collected on Wednesday, and has since been transported to a Waste Connections transfer facility in Tacoma, he said.
Waste Connections officials have identified two 30-ton garbage containers that they are “very certain” contain the garbage that was picked up on Port Angeles streets on Wednesday, Gallagher said.
Police are working with Waste Connections and Pierce County authorities to have those containers transported to another garbage facility in Graham, southeast of Tacoma, so that they can be searched for an infant’s body, he said.
An autopsy will occur if a body is found.
Gallagher said that the State Patrol Crime Lab has offered its assistance in searching the garbage, which will likely be done toward the end of the week.
Port Angeles police will be involved, he said.
Gallagher said the girl had moved in October from Colorado, where she lived with her mother, to stay with her father.
Gallagher said police did not know the name of the father of the infant. Authorities in Colorado have been contacted as part of the investigation, he said.
He said he did not know which city she was from.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@ peninsuladailynews.com.
