Mom put dead baby in trash, said it wasn’t right time to have a kid, TX cops say

Eleven months after a baby was found dead in a garbage truck, the newborn’s mother has been arrested, Texas authorities say.

Catherine Nicole Innes, identified as the mother of the baby discovered Aug. 14 in Houston, said she gave birth three days prior inside her shower when she began experiencing stomach pains, according to court records.

She said she passed out in the shower, and when she woke up, she discovered her child was not breathing, a detective with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in a probable cause statement.

“The defendant stated she became frightened and placed the (child) inside a trash bag,” authorities said. “She further explained that she removed the pink night gown she had been wearing during the time of birth, used towels to clean the blood from the shower and placed all those items into the same trash bag as the (victim).”

Innes, 22, is accused of putting the trash bag in an outdoor garbage bin, which investigators said was collected three days later.

Garbage collectors discovered the baby boy “lying face up on his back” surrounded by trash in the bottom of the truck, according to the court documents.

The baby’s skull was “crushed and separated from the body,” according to investigators, who said the child’s umbilical cord was detached from his body. Authorities said the remains were beginning to decompose.

After she was identified as the newborn’s mother, Innes told deputies she has a child and lives with her boyfriend, according to the court documents.

“She stated that while her boyfriend had expressed a desire for more children — and she shared that desire — she did not believe it was the right time to have another child,” investigators said.

The baby’s cause of death remains unclear. Doctors “could not find a biological reason to explain the child’s death,” according to detectives.

Innes was charged July 21 with tampering with physical evidence-human corpse, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. She was jailed on a $50,000 bond, court records show.

This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 11:05 AM with the headline "Mom put dead baby in trash, said it wasn’t right time to have a kid, TX cops say."