Dead baby found in woods near Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City identified as 6-month-old

The dead baby girl found in the woods about two miles from Arrowhead Stadium on Mother’s Day weekend was identified as six-month-old Kha’liya Bridgewater, a police spokeswoman said Thursday.

A ruling on the cause and manner of the infant’s death has not yet been made and the investigation is still ongoing, said Officer Donna Drake, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department.

A person who had been in the woods near the intersection of East 41st Street and Pittman Road found what they believed to be the body of a infant and called 911 about 7:45 p.m. May 13.

Officers responded to the area and confirmed that a deceased baby had been found. Detectives were working closely with the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause of death.

Police investigating the death suspect the child may have died in an apartment several days before her body was discarded there, according to court documents.

Detectives located a woman believed to be the child’s mother after witnesses contacted authorities when they saw reports of the discovery on the news, according to an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant.

Witnesses said the mother told them her infant daughter died suddenly around May 6. No funeral arrangements, however, had been made.

Days after the the baby’s body was found, the mother agreed to go to police headquarters in downtown Kansas City for an interview, according to court documents. Initially, she told detectives she only had two children and denied having an infant daughter. Eventually, she admitted she had a third child, according to court documents.

She told detectives her daughter was last seen alive on May 4 in her apartment. That night, she said her boyfriend told her the baby was choking and he held her against his chest. She said he later told her she was sleeping.

She told detectives that she found the baby with her eyes open and her arms folded against her chest. She did not call 911 because her phone was broken, according to court documents.

The following day, she said, she saw her boyfriend buckle the dead child into a car seat and leave.

Anyone with information about the baby’s death is asked to contact TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

The Star’s Bill Lukitsch provided information for this story.