A woman has been arrested after a five-day-old baby was found decapitated and dismembered in a rubbish bin in Spain.
Details of the sickening crime first emerged last week when detectives launched an urgent appeal to find the mother.
Doctors confirmed the little girl had been born alive and was just five days old when she was killed, likely with a knife.
And on Tuesday Civil Guard officers in Madrid arrested a woman born in Ecuador.
Reports this afternoon said police were searching her house in Vallecas, a working-class neighbourhood in the capital.
The suspect, who has been taken into custody, remains unnamed but has been described locally as a married woman with children.
The police mission to find the person responsible for the horrific crime, named Operation Natal, was launched on December 12 when a shocked recycling centre worker in Loeches, near Madrid, found the baby’s remains in several plastic bags.
The operation aims to ‘get justice’ for the dead infant.
Investigators, and a specialist police dog, searching among rubbish in Spain after a five-day-old girl was found decapitated and dismembered. A woman was arrested on Tuesday
The baby was born alive, doctors confirmed, and was likely killed with a knife
The little girl, according to the investigations, would have been decapitated and her remains then put in garbage bags
Dylan, a K-9 agent from the Central Cynological Service specialised in detecting biological remains, also participated in the investigations at the waste plant
A specialist dog assisted cops in the investigations at the waste plant and sniffed out several remains of the newborn in the area.
Tests revealed the girl had been delivered successfully before being decapitated with a knife and her body parts stuffed into bin bags.
DNA tests carried out on the corpse revealed she was of Latin American or subtropical origin, suggesting her mother would have been from a Central or South American country.
In light of this, the Civil Guard asked for citizen collaboration in case any resident of Vallecas knew an immigrant woman who had been pregnant during the last months of last year.
Detectives believed her remains reached the Loeches plant after being thrown into a container in the Vallecas neighbourhood close to the M-30 motorway.
The Civil Guard, as part of Operation Natal, last week asked for the public’s help in identifying a woman they estimated to be aged around 40 who had been pregnant during the last months of last year.
A police spokesman said at the time: ‘From the investigations carried out so far, it has been possible to determine that the remains would correspond to a female baby and that she was born alive.
‘There are indications that would point to her death being of a violent nature.
‘We are seeking the public’s help in clarifying this criminal act and asking anyone who could have any information of interest to contact us.’
