Arrest in Decades-Old Cold Case

A woman has been arrest­ed in con­nec­tion with a near­ly 37-year-old cold case in which a new­born baby was found dead in a Cal­i­for­nia dumpster. 

Melis­sa Jean Allen Avi­la, now 55, was tak­en into cus­tody on a mur­der charge and booked into the Lar­ry D. Smith Cor­rec­tion­al Facil­i­ty on $1.1 mil­lion bail.

Newborn Discovered in Dumpster

Avi­la is accused of leav­ing her deceased baby girl in a dump­ster behind a busi­ness on the 5400 block of La Sier­ra Ave. in River­side, Cal­i­for­nia, in Octo­ber 1987 when she was 19-years-old. 

A man rum­mag­ing for recy­clables dis­cov­ered the baby, and the death was ruled a homi­cide by the River­side Coun­ty Coro­ner’s Office.

Reopening the Cold Case

The case had sat cold for over 37 years, but in 2020, it was reopened and Avi­la was iden­ti­fied as the baby’s moth­er through DNA samples.

Detec­tives have no rea­son to believe the baby’s father had any crim­i­nal respon­si­bil­i­ty in the child’s murder.

Extradition and Arrest

Avi­la was even­tu­al­ly found to be liv­ing in Shel­by, North Car­oli­na. She was tak­en into cus­tody and extra­dit­ed to California.

“Thanks to the per­sis­tent efforts of our inves­ti­ga­tors and part­ners, this vic­tim now has an iden­ti­ty, bring­ing res­o­lu­tion to the case,” River­side Police Chief Lar­ry Gon­za­lez said.

Avi­la’s arraign­ment is slat­ed for Sep­tem­ber 9, and she faces a mur­der charge for the decades-old crime.