Girl charged with attempted murder in abandonment case

EVERETT, Wash. – A 17-year-old girl was charged Wednesday with attempted murder in the abandonment of a newborn baby boy, who was stuffed into a black plastic garbage bag and tossed over a fence near a retainment pond.

The charge was filed in District Court, pending transfer of the case to Snohomish County Superior Court.

The teen, Mayra Alvarado-Quinones, who is being charged as an adult, was released Monday on $50,000 bail, put up by relatives.

The baby was found late Saturday by neighbors who heard crying on the east side of Marysville. The baby was in satisfactory condition when he left Providence Everett Medical Center on Tuesday, hospital spokeswoman Cheri Russum said Wednesday. She said she had no information on his current whereabouts. An after-hours call to the state Department of Social and Health Services to determine custody arrangements was not immediately returned.

Alvarado-Quinones, a Mexican citizen, was arrested early Sunday after police followed a trail of blood droplets from the baby to a nearby house. She had been in the United States about three months on a visa and was staying with her sister and brother-in-law, prosecutors said.

The baby's father lives in Mexico, authorities said.

The teen's parents were expected to arrive from Mexico this week, defense lawyer Hortensia Castillo said Monday. She did not answer an after-hours call Wednesday.

Under Washington state's 2002 Newborn Safety Act, as with similar laws in other states, parents may abandon healthy babies less than 72 hours old at hospitals and fire stations without being subject to prosecution. There are no statistics on how often that has occurred, DSHS spokeswoman Kathy Spears said earlier this week.