{"id":472380,"date":"2026-10-21T05:56:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T05:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/472380\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T05:56:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T05:56:35","slug":"fort-worth-newborn-drowned-in-motel-bathtub-mother-charged-with-capital-murder-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/472380\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth newborn drowned in motel bathtub, mother charged with capital murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

A 23-year-old woman faces a capital murder charge after police say she drowned her newborn daughter in a motel bathtub.<\/p>\n

The woman’s 26-year-old boyfriend allegedly disposed of the infant’s body four days later.<\/p>\n

A homeless woman discovered the infant’s body while dumpster diving outside a Fort Worth motel.<\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Texas – A Fort Worth mother is facing a capital murder charge after police say she drowned her newborn baby in a motel bathtub before her boyfriend threw the body in a dumpster.<\/p>\n

What we know<\/p>\n

Avia Cantrell, 23, and Camron Baker, 26, are now facing charges after a baby was found dead in a Fort Worth dumpster in the 7300 block of Camp Bowie Boulevard.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, Cantrell admitted to police that she delivered a baby girl at the Drummers Inn in Fort Worth last week.<\/p>\n

Police say Cantrell admitted to drowning the infant and leaving her body inside a bag in their motel room for four days.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Investigation<\/p>\n

The backstory<\/p>\n

On Oct. 18, a homeless woman searching for items in a dumpster found a deceased infant girl inside a bag outside the Drummers Inn on Camp Bowie West Boulevard.<\/p>\n

Police say the infant had been dead for an extended amount of time.<\/p>\n

A day later, on Oct. 19, police received a welfare check call on 23-year-old Avia Cantrell. Cantrell’s sister-in-law requested the check, telling police that Cantrell was pregnant and due soon.<\/p>\n

Officers contacted Cantrell in Room 205, where she had been living for the last two years with her 26-year-old boyfriend, Camron Baker, and her other children.<\/p>\n

Police say Cantrell confessed to giving birth to a full-term baby girl in her bathtub. According to the arrest affidavit, Cantrell told detectives that she left the baby face-down in the water for approximately 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cantrell called Baker at work to tell him she gave birth and the baby was gone, police say. The couple kept the deceased infant in a bag by the toilet for four days.<\/p>\n

Baker told police they did not call for medical help when he returned home because they didn’t want to “catch a case.”<\/p>\n

On Oct. 18, Baker placed the baby inside a brown luggage bag with flowers on it and threw it in the dumpster, officials said.<\/p>\n

Baker is charged with abuse of a corpse. Cantrell is charged with capital murder of a person under ten years old.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying<\/p>\n

“Being that it was a baby, you know, that’s always very sad to hear when there’s a child involved in any situations like this,” Fort Worth Police PIO Cynthia Wood tells FOX 4’s Alex Boyer.<\/p>\n

Wood relayed that there are public resources to help new mothers in the wake of this tragedy.<\/p>\n

“They can surrender that baby to any hospitals and fire stations where the baby doesn’t have to be dumped in situations like this,” Wood said. “They do have a place for them to surrender them without any questions. QTs as well.”<\/p>\n

What’s next<\/p>\n

Cantrell remains in the Tarrant County Jail, and her bond has not been set. Baker is no longer listed on the Tarrant County Jail’s website.<\/p>\n

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services tells FOX 4 they are investigating the incident, and said Cantrell’s surviving children are in the custody of a relative. TDFP also a history exists between the department and Cantrell’s family.<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

The information in this article comes from an arrest affidavit for Avia Cantrell and Camron Baker, and previous FOX 4 reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief A 23-year-old woman faces a capital murder charge after police say she drowned her newborn daughter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-472380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}