A somber series of events unfolded in Whitehaven, where a man was taken into custody, charged with the horrific act of placing a deceased infant in a dumpster. According to Local Memphis, 45-year-old James Booth is now facing charges of abuse of a corpse following the discovery of the baby's body by Memphis Police.
Police were called to the scene after receiving a suspicious call early morning on Monday, January 27th. Officers arrived at the 3100 block of Teakrock Lane, swiftly to investigate the scene. Following this initial tip, Booth was purportedly identified quickly as the individual who had taken the baby to subsequently place it in the dumpster located at 1312 East Shelby Drive. As reported by Action News 5, the infant was found dead, after what had begun as a trip to the hospital for a birth in transit.
The backdrop to this tragedy further revealed that Booth was accompanying a teenage girl, who experienced the pangs of labor in a vehicle en route to medical care. This girl, unnamed as of the latest reports, was admitted to Regional One Hospital in non-critical condition following the incident, while Booth was arrested the next day in the 5400 block of Hudgins Road. The nature of their relationship, at the time of writing, remains undisclosed.
WREG News confirmed that Booth, who had been taken into custody without bond pending further investigation, is due to make a court appearance on the morning of Thursday, January 31st. As the Memphis community grapples to understand and to process this harrowing event, the police have maintained that the investigation continues to be ongoing, seeking to unfold how and exactly when the infant passed.
