Police making a routine traffic stop stumbled upon a gruesome and heartwrenching discovery. The woman they just pulled over had the body of a dead baby in the trunk of the car. Officers from the Jackson Police Department pulled the car over on Highway 43 and Alabama Highway 69 on Tuesday at around 3:15 p.m. because the car had expired license plates.
It was during a search of the vehicle that the body of a baby boy was found in the trunk of the car. The woman, who at first provided a false name, told police she was on her way to Walmart, according to Fox 10 News.
The woman was later identified as Jalesa Gaines, who lives in McIntosh. Law enforcement officials said that the mother didn’t have a lot to say about what happened to the baby. When asked if the mother was remorseful over the death of her baby, Chief Jerry Taylor responded, “to a degree but not to the degree we’d expect.”
Police reported during a press conference on Wednesday that they are still in the process of investigating this case. Additional search warrants were obtained by police after new information was discovered, but they stopped short of sharing what that new information entailed.
According to Taylor, police have learned “new individuals were identified as possible witnesses” and the police were still in the process of trying to locate these witnesses. While Taylor didn’t want to speculate on the age of the infant, he did tell reporters that the baby appeared to be “several days old.”
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The baby’s body was transported to the state Department of Forensic Sciences lab in Mobile, where an autopsy on the child might help unfold this mystery. They still don’t know the cause of death for this infant.
According to WVTM 13 local news, the 23-year-old Gaines was charged with “abuse to a corpse” for the dead baby found in the trunk of her car. She is also facing charges of giving a false name to police, as well as driving with expired tags, according to Seattle Times . They have confirmed that Gaines is the mother of this baby. The investigation continues.
[Featured Image by Jne Valokuvaus/Shutterstock]