Overview
- Police located a newborn’s body in a portable toilet tank near a Gretna Waffle House after a woman sought help at 3:17 a.m. Thursday.
- An autopsy by the Jefferson Parish coroner found the baby was born alive in the third trimester, weighed 7.2 pounds, and died of asphyxia by drowning in liquid that included cleaning chemicals.
- Gretna police identified 37-year-old Lekesha Lemelle, who told officers she delivered in the porta-potty, and secured a second-degree murder warrant, with charges to be filed after her hospital discharge.
- The coroner recorded the infant as “Baby Boy Lemelle” and said he will receive a publicly funded burial unless family contacts the office before the end of April.
- Advocates highlighted Louisiana’s Safe Haven Law, which lets parents surrender newborns at hospitals, fire or police stations, or public health units without prosecution, as police said the woman was believed to be homeless.