Man charged after infant found dead in dumpster behind gas station, police say

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC/Gray News) - A man has been charged in connection with a dead baby that was found in a dumpster behind a Tennessee gas station.

The Memphis Police Department said 45-year-old James Booth was charged with abuse of a corpse after the discovery was made last Monday in Whitehaven.

Police responded just before 9:30 a.m. to East Shelby Drive and Faronia Road in Memphis.

The gas station’s owner, Jeet Singh, said his surveillance camera caught a suspect tossing a black bag into the dumpster and driving off just two hours before the discovery.

“The fire department came up, and I see the bag in the garbage, then I just quickly go over there to see what they’re checking for,” he said.

Singh said the fire department then alerted him of the body that was inside.

“Then he said, ‘There’s somebody, a body in the bag,‘” he said. “Then I go jump in the garbage, took the bag out and hand it over to the fire department. They looked at it and said there was a body inside.”

According to police, a teen gave birth in a vehicle while on the way to the hospital. The man she was with, identified as Booth, allegedly took the baby and put in the dumpster behind the gas station.

The tragedy sheds light on Tennessee’s Safe Haven Law, a safe and legal alternative where parents can surrender their baby to any hospital or police/fire precinct with no questions asked.

Officials said the mother of the baby was taken to the hospital in non-critical condition.

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