A newly released arrest report reveals a newborn baby boy suffocated to death, and now his mother is under arrest.
Bianca DeSouza, 21, is facing charges of aggravated negligent manslaughter of a child and child neglect with great bodily harm.
DeSouza was arrested on Dec. 8, more than a year after the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said the mother, then 19, gave birth to her son at her home in west Boca Raton.
According to DeSouza's arrest report, hours after DeSouza gave birth on May 2, 2022, her mother arrived at the home and found the newborn unresponsive on DeSouza's bed. The child was taken to West Boca Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Before the baby's birth, DeSouza had been diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia and PTSD, according to her mother, and "consistently used illicit drugs and medications not prescribed to her," her arrest report stated.
The report said DeSouza told investigators from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and Florida Department of Children and Families that, after giving birth on her bed, she fell asleep. When she woke up, the baby had stopped crying, and DeSouza took a shower.
A medical examiner determined the baby's cause of death was asphyxia.
DeSouza was being held in the Palm Beach County jail on a $25,000 bond.
