The mother of a newborn baby found buried alive in Los Angeles was charged Monday with attempted murder and child abuse, officials said.
Deputies had responded to the side of a riverbed in Compton on Nov. 27 after people heard crying, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.
When the deputies arrived, they heard "a baby's muffled cry," the department said.
The deputies searched through the brush and found a newborn baby girl buried alive in a crevice under rubber and asphalt.
"Deputies removed the pieces of asphalt and debris and rescued the baby from the crevice," the department said. "The baby was wrapped in a blanket and cold to the touch."
The baby is now in a stable condition after she was rushed to the hospital. Deputies said they believed she was just 36-48 hours old when she was found.
On Monday, sheriff officials named the mother of the child as Porche Laronda Washington, 33, who they said was arrested Thursday.
Washington was arrested on a $500,000 arrest murder for attempted murder and child abandonment, Sgt. Richard Ruiz of the Sheriff's Department Special Victims Unit told reporters.
Ruiz said Washington and her daughter were released from a local hospital on Nov. 26, a day before the child was discovered.
"The baby's medical condition is good," Ruiz said.
He said investigators were able to solve the case through tips received from the public.
The department also said that Los Angeles has safe haven laws that allow any mother or father to drop a baby off at a fire station or hospital without being questioned.
"Sadly, babies are sometimes harmed or abandoned by parents who feel that they're not ready or able to raise a child, or don't know there are other options," the statement last week said. "Many of these mothers or fathers are afraid and don't know where to turn for help. There's a better choice, surrender your baby."
It comes after a newborn was discovered in November in a church nativity scene in Queens, New York.
The mother of that baby was later found, but officials said they would not press charges because she "followed the spirit" of New York's safe haven laws by leaving the infant at a church where she thought the child would be safe.