Man Who Allegedly Dumped Infant Daughter’s Dead Body At Mortuary Turns Himself In At Mexico Border

A missing man whose infant daughter was found dead and abandoned in the parking lot of a funeral home turned himself in to authorities this week at the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

Police say that Alexander Echeverria, a 22-year-old resident of South Sacramento, fled to Mexico after the death of his daughter but surrendered to authorities with his lawyer in tow on Monday at the border near San Diego, the New York Post reports. He was booked at a San Diego jail on suspicion of first-degree murder and assault on a child causing great bodily injury, according to the publication.

A worker discovered Echeverria’s 8-month-old daughter Alexia Rose Echeverria on May 27 near a dumpster in the parking lot of a mortuary in Bellflower, CBS Los Angeles reports. The child was in a car seat and partially covered with a blanket, but had no visible signs of trauma to her body, authorities said soon after the discovery. The infant was pronounced dead at the scene, prompting an investigation, during which Echeverria was named a person of interest.

The child’s mother, Karla Alvarado, lived with Echeverria and said that he took their daughter on a trip to retrieve his brother in San Francisco. She saw both Echeverria and her daughter in a FaceTime video the day before Echeverria went missing, but said that he called her crying uncontrollably later that day, according to Los Angeles’ KABC. The situation soon became an investigative matter for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

“He just left her there like she was trash or something,” Alvarado previously told CBS Los Angeles. “I just want them to find him. I want to know exactly how my baby passed away, why he left her there, why he couldn’t face the consequences.”

Authorities believe that the girl died in Sacramento, according to the New York Post. While her cause of death has yet to be released, authorities have said that they do not believe she died of natural causes.

An unnamed family member who reportedly spoke with Echeverria before he disappeared told Alvarado that Echeverria was playing with her “and he threw her in the air and she fell and she wasn’t waking up,” CBS Los Angeles reports. Alvarado said that she was told that Echeverria told the aforementioned family member that he was going to drive to the hospital, but he instead drove 400 miles away to his mother’s house.

Echeverria, who is also being held in relation to an arrest warrant stemming from a previous domestic violence case, is expected to be transported to Sacramento within 10 days to face charges, the Post reports.