The South Los Angeles investigation moved from an unidentified infant to a murder prosecution within days as police, relatives and medical examiners developed evidence.
LOS ANGELES, Ca. — The first call gave police an immediate emergency but few answers: A female infant had been found inside a trash container in South Los Angeles. The baby was unresponsive, her identity was not yet publicly known, and detectives had to determine both where she came from and why she was there.
Within days, the investigation moved through several distinct stages. A witness’s discovery brought officers to the scene. Relatives supplied information that helped connect the unidentified child to 4-month-old Luna. Police arrested her 19-year-old mother, Takiyah Rochelle Babers. Prosecutors filed murder and child-assault charges. Finally, the Los Angeles County medical examiner reported that the baby died from blunt trauma and classified her death as a homicide. What remains unresolved is the central issue for the criminal courts: whether prosecutors can prove Babers caused the fatal injuries and committed the charged crimes.
The sequence began about 10:30 p.m. Sept. 28 in the 5200 block of Alba Street. According to the LAPD, Newton Division officers responded to a radio call for a death investigation after an infant was reported inside a trash bin. A woman who spoke with local news organizations said she had noticed a bag and looked inside with the light from her phone. She initially believed she had found a doll. After recognizing that it was a child, she and others sought emergency assistance.
Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics transported the baby to a hospital, but she was pronounced dead. The LAPD Juvenile Division’s Abused Child Section was assigned to investigate. At that moment, the department had a deceased infant but had not publicly announced a name, cause of death or suspect. Detectives faced the basic tasks common to unidentified-victim cases: establish who the child was, determine who had last cared for her, reconstruct her movements and identify the source of any injuries.
The identification process accelerated because of what the baby’s family saw on television. Herman Johnson and Laura Lacy, who said they had been caring for their granddaughter, heard news coverage noting that the unidentified infant had six toes on one foot. Luna shared that physical trait. The couple had returned the baby to Babers earlier that evening, they said, and now could not get a satisfactory explanation about where she was. They began to suspect that the child in the news was the baby they had been raising.
The relatives’ information gave investigators another path to follow. Johnson and Lacy said Babers gave changing accounts of Luna’s location, at one point saying she was asleep and at another saying she was with her biological father. FOX 11 reported that family members also doubted a phone video Babers showed them as evidence the child was safe because they believed the footage was old. The relatives shared photographs and information with police, according to local reporting, helping investigators compare the missing baby with the child recovered from the trash bin.
By Sept. 29, the LAPD said detectives had identified Babers as the suspect. Officers took her into custody without incident and booked her on suspicion of murder. Police publicly identified her as the infant’s biological mother. Bail was set at $2 million. The department’s announcement did not describe a motive and did not say exactly what evidence established the alleged killing. It said the investigation remained open and that detectives would present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for consideration of formal charges.
Other evidence surfaced through later reporting. Najee Ali, an advocate speaking for Babers’ foster parents, told the Los Angeles Times that investigators had video from the apartment complex that appeared to show Babers disposing of the baby’s body. Ali also described camera footage from the residence around the period after Luna was dropped off. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation confirmed the substance of Ali’s account to the newspaper. Because the videos have not been fully aired or tested in court, their exact contents and legal significance remain subject to the judicial process.
Prosecutors nevertheless concluded that the evidence justified two serious charges. The district attorney’s office charged Babers with murder and felony assault on a child causing death. Those counts go beyond the initial police booking and represent the prosecution’s formal allegations about criminal responsibility for Luna’s death. A charging document is not proof of guilt. Babers is entitled to challenge the evidence, contest the prosecution’s interpretation of the recordings and witness accounts, and require the state to prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt.
The medical examiner then supplied evidence independent of the family accounts about the physical cause of death. Records reported in early October identified the child as Luna Babers, age 4 months and 3 days, and listed blunt trauma as the cause of death. The manner was homicide. The finding gave investigators a medical basis for treating the death as intentionally caused by another person, but it did not identify the person responsible. Public reports reviewed for this article do not provide a detailed forensic timeline showing exactly when the fatal injury occurred.
The family’s account also helped detectives narrow the period they needed to examine. Johnson and Lacy said Luna had been living largely in their care before Babers asked to have her on Sept. 28. They said they dropped the baby off during the evening, only to learn hours later that a similar-aged infant had been found nearby. That short interval placed attention on the period between the handoff and the 10:30 p.m. discovery. Investigators have not publicly released a complete timeline for those hours or all evidence collected from the residence.
Some unanswered questions are particularly important because of the difference between what relatives believe and what prosecutors must prove. Family members have publicly expressed the view that the killing was planned. Authorities, however, have not announced a motive, and reports reviewed for this article do not describe a confession or a public statement from Babers explaining what happened. Assertions about planning, intent and motive therefore remain allegations or interpretations rather than established facts.
The investigation also changed the role of the people who first encountered the scene. The witness who thought she had found a doll became the person whose discovery triggered the emergency response. The grandparents who watched the resulting news reports became sources of identification information. Detectives then linked those separate pieces with physical, video and medical evidence. That progression illustrates why the case moved rapidly from an unidentified-child call to an arrest even though many of the most important factual questions were still unanswered publicly.
What began with an emergency call about an unidentified infant has produced a homicide ruling, an arrest and two felony charges, while leaving part of the investigative record out of public view. Authorities have not released a motive or a complete account of the baby’s final hours. Babers remains accused rather than convicted, and no sufficiently reliable source reviewed through Nov. 10 establishes the result of the Oct. 30 proceeding that earlier reports had placed on the court calendar.
Author note: Last updated November 10, 2026.