Police say an arrest affidavit describes a birth inside a motel room four days before the infant was discovered outside.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A 23-year-old woman has been charged with capital murder after police investigating the death of a newborn girl found near a Fort Worth motel dumpster said the mother admitted leaving the child in bathwater after giving birth, according to an arrest affidavit.
Avia Cantrell faces a capital murder charge involving a person younger than 10, while her boyfriend, 26-year-old Camron Baker, has been charged with abuse of a corpse. Both were taken into custody after investigators connected them to the newborn found outside the Drummers Inn on Camp Bowie West Boulevard. The allegations against Cantrell and Baker have not been proven in court.
Fort Worth police were called to the motel at about 8:40 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18, after a woman searching through a dumpster found a bag containing the infant, according to police and the arrest affidavit. The woman showed the bag to a friend, and authorities were contacted. The baby was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
The investigation took a significant turn the next day when a relative requested a welfare check on Cantrell. The relative told police that Cantrell had been pregnant and was believed to be near her due date. Officers contacted Cantrell at the motel, where investigators said she had been staying with Baker and three other children.
At roughly the same time, investigators were reviewing surveillance video from the motel. Police said footage showed a woman taking a box that included an infant car seat toward the dumpster area. A motel manager identified the woman seen in the footage as Cantrell, according to reports based on the affidavit.
Investigators said Cantrell initially denied having recently been pregnant but later told detectives that she gave birth to a full-term baby girl in the bathtub of the motel room at about 7 a.m. Oct. 14. According to the affidavit, Cantrell told police the newborn was moving after the birth and that she left the child face down in the bathwater for about 30 minutes before moving her.
Cantrell told investigators that she later believed the baby had died and placed the child in a bag, according to the affidavit. Police said she contacted Baker, who was at work at the time. Investigators allege the newborn remained inside the motel room for about four days before being taken to the dumpster.
Baker told investigators that he later placed the bag containing the infant inside another piece of luggage and took it to the dumpster, according to police accounts of the affidavit. Authorities charged him with abuse of a corpse. Cantrell was charged with capital murder after investigators interviewed her and reviewed evidence gathered at the motel.
The three other children who had been living at the motel were placed with a relative, according to CBS Texas. Authorities have not announced charges involving those children. Police have also not publicly alleged that Baker participated in the newborn’s death; his charge concerns the handling of the infant’s body after her death.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office was working to determine the newborn’s official cause and manner of death. That medical finding had not been publicly released as of Wednesday. Police said the investigation remains open, leaving the affidavit’s allegations subject to further investigation and the criminal court process.
Tarrant County inmate records listed both Cantrell and Baker in custody at the Lon Evans Corrections Center on Wednesday. No final court determination has been made in either case, and authorities had not announced any additional charges.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.