GASTONIA, N.C. – A Lincolnton, N.C., woman has been charged with felony child abuse after police said she left her newborn son in the trunk of a car to suffocate.
Authorities said 22-year-old Sharena Waynette Bess is scheduled to appear in Gaston County District Court on Tuesday. The infant is expected to make a full recovery.
Police said Bess gave birth in Charlotte on Friday, then drove herself to a women's health care facility in Gastonia. She was taken to a hospital where police say she told personnel she left the infant in a box at another hospital. A search turned up nothing.
Police later searched her car and found the baby in the trunk wrapped in a towel and placed in a book bag. An arrest warrant said Bess "left him there to asphyxiate."
Bess is being held at Gaston County Jail on $100,000 bond.
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