Dead Baby Found in Dumpster by Construction Workers: Police

Workers for a roofing company found a baby's body in a dumpster outside a Florida apartment complex on Monday morning, local police said.

Officers arrived at the the apartment building in the 1700 block of Rodman Street of Hollywood, Florida, at roughly 8 a.m. and promptly began lifesaving measures on the infant. Still, the baby was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene shortly after by fire rescue officials, according to the Hollywood Police Department.

A spokesperson for the police department told local media that the homicide detectives are investigating the case but provided no additional details about the baby, including the child's age or gender. The cause of death and how long the infant's body had been inside the trash bin were unclear at the time of publication.

Newsweek reached out via email on Monday to Hollywood police for comment and an update on the case.

Workers for Infinity Roofing were at the apartment complex in Hollywood, a coastal city less than 10 miles from Fort Lauderdale, to work on the building's roof when they spotted a box inside a dumpster, the owner John Mitala told local newspaper the SunSentinel.

"Somebody happened to notice the box in the dumpster that didn't belong to us," he said, adding that when the workers went inside the dumpster to inspect the box, they were met with a "really bad odor." In the box, they found the baby's body and immediately called authorities.

"The guys were shook," Mitala said. "No one expects something like that. It's really affected the entire company."

HPD told local media outlets that they are encouraging anyone with information to come forward, noting that detectives are specifically looking for anyone who might have video evidence that could help them figure out who put the baby in the garbage receptacle.

"If you live near this area, this is the 1700 block of Rodman Street in the city of Hollywood, and you have a Ring camera and you believe that you have some kind of footage on your Ring camera or on your doorbell camera, please don't hesitate to call us," HPD spokesman Christian Lata told local station WSVN.

Lata also made a plea specific to Tesla drivers in the area, asking them to check their vehicle's surveillance footage.

"These vehicles have 24/7 surveillance around their cars," Lata said. "If you live around the area and you have one of those vehicles that are constantly recording to take a second, look at your vehicle, see if you have anything that would be useful to us."

HPD asked anyone with information to call 954-764-4357 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.