EVERETT — A teen mother accused of abandoning her newborn son in an Everett trash bin initially denied giving birth to the boy but appears to have changed her story after detectives collected her DNA, court papers show.
Samantha Houston, 18, of Everett, was arrested April 29 for investigation of abandonment of a dependent person, a felony.
Everett police say she told detectives that she had panicked after giving birth March 25, wrapped the boy in a towel and placed him in a dumpster.
Houston didn’t at first acknowledge being the child’s mother when investigators confronted her April 27, according to search warrant affidavits filed in the case.
“I interviewed Samantha at school,” detective Andrew Williams wrote. “Samantha heard about the baby that was found in the dumpster but denied, multiple times, that she was the mother.”
Before detectives spoke with Houston, they already had obtained a judge’s permission to obtain samples of her DNA. That happened during the interview.
When one of Houston’s friends encountered her afterward, the teen was crying and spoke about the DNA samples.
“Samantha couldn’t keep it together and was going home,” the friend told police.
The detectives were directed to Houston by an anonymous tipster who called to report the teen had been pregnant, then dropped out of Cascade High School. She later returned to school, no longer pregnant, but refused to talk about what happened.
Investigators were told Houston lived at the apartment complex where the infant was found. Her physical description also matched that of a young woman who was seen standing at the garbage bin the night the baby was found, the search warrant says.
The young woman who was at the garbage bin told an Everett woman who worked at the apartment complex that “she thought she could hear a baby in the trash,” the search warrant said.
The Everett woman called 911 after she heard the child’s cries and climbed inside the garbage bin. The boy was found beneath a microwave, his umbilical cord still attached.
Houston’s mother later told detectives that her daughter had taken out some garbage shortly before the boy was found. She told detectives she was unaware that her daughter had been pregnant.
In addition to taking DNA samples, investigators received a judge’s permission to seize Houston’s cellphone. They not only developed information about the boy’s presumed father, but were told Houston had contacted him after detectives questioned her and collected genetic evidence.
The abandoned baby boy remains in protective custody and is reported to be healthy.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
