A sicko who drowned her newborn baby and dumped the infant’s body in a California dumpster managed to evade justice for 17 years — until investigators used cutting-edge DNA technology and a discarded Costco receipt to finally track her down.
Despite the grisly allegations, she was sentenced last week to just six years in state prison.
The shocking case began in May 2009, when a man searching through a dumpster for recyclables at an apartment complex in Union City — about 30 miles south of San Francisco — discovered the body of a newborn baby girl, according to The Independent.
Detectives interviewed residents and identified Angela Beth Onduto, then a physical therapist in her 30s, as a possible person of interest. But without enough evidence to charge her, the investigation stalled for years.
The breakthrough finally came last year when investigators used new DNA technology to confirm Onduto was a parental match to the baby. Police also said a Costco receipt recovered from the dumpster linked her to the scene.
After the infant’s body was discovered, Union City police named her Matea Esperanza and paid for her burial at Chapel of the Chimes cemetery in Oakland.
Detectives later wrote in charging documents that Onduto “expressed no remorse.”
After her arrest last year, Onduto was extradited to Alameda County to face a murder charge. During the court proceedings, a county judge revoked her license to practice physical therapy, per the outlet.
Her attorneys argued the case had nothing to do with her career and said she had “labored for hours overnight and gave birth alone in her bathtub, then drowned the baby almost immediately post-partum.”
Onduto, now 47, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in April, accepting punishment without admitting guilt.
Court records show Onduto has already received credit for 1 year in prison, plus 54 days for good conduct. She is being held at Santa Rita Jail.
Authorities have never publicly identified the baby’s father.