Police are saying fear may have motivated the mother to leave her child in a clothes hamper.
The anguish is apparent on this 20-year-old mother's face. Adela Gomez is charged with the attempted murder of her own son.
It all began Thursday evening at the Smithfield packing plant in Wilson. The plant manager says her co-workers did not even know she was pregnant. They became concerned when she disappeared.
A company nurse found her inside a locked dressing room. She was hemorrhaging.
The nurse heard the baby crying nearby and found it at the bottom of an industrial clothes hamper clinging to life.
Detective Bryant Gibson says Wilson Police still want to know what else may have happened to Baby Gomez.
"We're very lucky the infant was found," says Gibson. "The infant had some injuries that were not consistent with normal childbirth."
Adela Gomez had just started working at the plant in the past few months. She was living in a mobile home in rural Wilson County with several other people.
Gibson says the early indication that led them to believe the mother may have been afraid is that she did not have the means to take care the child.
"This is a case that is difficult to investigate," says Gibson. "Most of us have children and can relate to it."
Saturday night, Adela Gomez is in the Wilson County jail. Police say she has another child, 2 years old, that lives in Mexico with relatives.
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