ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — When investigators confronted Susan Sherita Richardson about the baby girl she had recently given birth to, the woman yawned, leaned her head back and acted bored, Orlando police said.
In Orange County Circuit Court Wednesday, she appeared before a judge on charges of child neglect and unlawful desertion of a child.
Raw: Boyfriend discusses Baby Willow
While she was in court, the search continued for the child.
Just before 4 p.m., police started to remove a dumpster from the Willow Bend Apartment complex. The dumpster was surrounded with crime scene tape and hauled away.
Police did not specifically say how the dumpster is related to the invetsigation.
In court, Richardson, 30, yawned during proceedings and at one point the judge had to ask her, “Are you awake?”
She is accused of giving birth in the parking lot of Willow Bend Apartments and then somehow discarding the child.
Documents: Susan Richardson charging documents
She has not given police any information on the whereabouts of the child, other than to say she didn't want the baby and dropped her off at a random apartment.
Police determined the child was a girl and have been calling her “Baby Willow.”
Investigators returned to the apartment complex Wednesday morning to continue searching for the newborn. Police said the renewed search effort isn’t based on new information.
Investigators were alerted to the situation at 3:04 p.m. Monday when someone reported finding a placenta in the apartment complex parking lot.
When police arrived at the complex on Silver Star Road, they found the placenta with part of an umbilical cord still attached.
Experts later determined the placenta appeared to be from a later-term pregnancy, police said.
An extensive search with four dog teams did not turn up any trace of the baby. Investigators also searched every dumpster in the area with no success.
Police were able to follow bloody footprints from the scene to a home on Willow Run Boulevard, where Richardson was living with her boyfriend, Johnnie Bryant.
“Do you think she killed the baby?” Channel 9 reporter Jeff Deal asked Bryant.
“She’s not that kind of person. If the baby was born dead, it's a different thing. But killing the baby? No, she's not that kind of person. She's not gonna kill no baby,” Bryant said.
It was discovered that at about noon Monday, emergency personnel responded to the same Willow Run Boulevard home and Richardson was taken by ambulance to Florida South Hospital claiming she’d had a miscarriage, investigators said.
She told staff at the hospital that she had only been about four months pregnant when she miscarried, police said. She did not mention anything about giving birth, they said.
When they interviewed Richardson later in the day, police said she seemed more concerned about going to jail than with the well-being of the newborn.
“At times, she would yawn when asked a question, and other times she would lean her head back as if she was bored with our questions,” officers wrote in her arrest report.
Police said there were no diapers, baby carriages, cribs or any other items in the home that would show Richardson was preparing to take care of a newborn.
“If someone does have her, our biggest concern is not putting charges on anyone. Our biggest concern is that the baby is safe,” said Sgt. Wanda Ford of the Orlando Police Department.
She was being held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of bonds totaling $50,000.
If she is able to post bail, the judge ordered that she not have any unsupervised interaction with anyone younger than 16.
Police suspended their search on Wednesday around 2:30 p.m. until the following day, but just before 4 p.m., police were seen in the search area wrapping crime scene tape around a dumpster before it was driven away.