Port Angeles girl accused of throwing her baby in the trash

PORT ANGELES, Wash. -- Port Angeles police believe that a 16 year-old mother gave birth to a live child at a home in this small town on the Olympic Peninsula. Investigators, believing the baby was killed and put out with the trash picked up Wednesday, plan to search through 60 tons of garbage for the body.

Police say the infant boy died Tuesday morning at 3 a.m. They heard about it from a woman who came into the police station at about 12:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon reporting she'd seen a baby in a trash can in an alley behind the girl's house at 116 E. 12th St. The trash was collected by the time police arrived.

The Waste Management company says all the trash is in two 30-ton containers. The trash is usually transported to a Tacoma transfer stationbefore being taken to an Oregon landfill. Police Chief Terry Gallagher told the Peninsula Daily News those containers would be sifted through at a facility in a facility in Graham.

Not only was the girl arrested for investigation of first-degree murder, but her 41-year old father, Ronald Last Jr., was as well; he is accused of disposing the body. Searching the house, police found what was thought to be a pipe bomb but turned out to be a device to transport drugs. A gun was also found.

With her baggy-style clothing, not everyone knew she was pregnant. The girl was given medical care before she was incarcerated. Gallagher said he didn't believe the girl had had any health care before she was arrested.

"This is a very sad case," he said.