Houston woman charged nearly a year after her dead newborn was found in a garbage truck

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A 22-year-old woman is facing charges nearly a year after investigators said she put her dead newborn child in the trash.

Catherine Nicole Innes, 22, is charged with tampering with evidence — namely, a human corpse. She was in custody and appeared in court Monday night.

Her bond was set at $50,000.

On Aug. 14, 2024, Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called out to a residential neighborhood off North Eldridge Parkway near Spencer Road shortly before 9:30 a.m.

They said waste collection workers found a dead newborn boy in some trash they had picked up. According to the sheriff’s office, the crew found the baby boy’s body when they stopped to compact the trash they had collected from several streets.

At the time, HCSO officials said the child appeared to be full term and was not a miscarriage. It was unclear how long the child had been dead before it was found.

According to court documents filed on Monday, Innes approached investigators after the child’s body was found. They said that she told them that she was the boy’s mother and agreed to give a voluntary statement about what happened.

She told them that on Aug. 11, 2024, three days before the child’s body was found, she started having stomach pain, so she got into a cold shower to try to relieve the pain.

That’s when she said she gave birth to the boy. She said the child was making some noise, but she passed out on the shower floor.

She said that when she regained consciousness, the child wasn’t breathing. She said she got scared, so she put the baby’s body in a trash bag and cleaned up the blood. She said she put the trash bag in a trash can, where it sat for three days before it was picked up during a routine collection.

Innes told investigators she had another son, and she lived with him and her boyfriend. She said both she and her boyfriend wanted more kids, but she didn’t feel like it was the right time.