GRETNA, LA — A newborn boy, weighing 7 pounds 2 ounces and born full-term, was found dead inside a portable toilet tank early Thursday morning, and his mother now faces a second-degree murder charge after allegedly telling investigators she left him there because she found him ugly. The infant, later named Jeremiah by relatives who never knew he existed, was born alive on March 26, 2026, in a port-a-potty at the Westbank Shopping Center, just a block from the Waffle House where his mother, 37-year-old Laquisha Lamell, had been sleeping on the streets. He died the same night, never taking his first steps, never blowing out a birthday candle, never watching a single episode of Bluey.
The case has sent shockwaves through this small Louisiana community, where employees at the Waffle House had been feeding Lamell for months without knowing she was pregnant.
The grim discovery unfolded around 3:17 a. m. when Gretna police and EMS were dispatched to the shopping center after Lamell walked into the Waffle House, covered in blood, and told employees she had just given birth nearby.
She asked them to call an ambulance for herself, not for the baby. Rongelias Stedman, a Waffle House employee who knew Lamell from her nightly visits, later recounted the chilling moment. She left the baby in the porta-potty and came in and asked for an ambulance for herself, Stedman said.
One of the cooks went to check the portable toilet and found the infant submerged in a mixture of raw sewage and chemicals. First responders tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy conducted by the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office confirmed that Jeremiah was alive at birth and had been delivered approximately one week early. The cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning in the toxic mixture. The coroner thinks he was a healthy kid, said Gretna Deputy Chief Jason DeMarco.
The kid could be alive and well, living a productive life, had a chance of something as opposed to the way it was. This isn’t anything you can prepare for. This isn’t something you expect to see, a newborn.
It’s horrifying. The medical examiner found no underlying health issues, describing Jeremiah as a full-term, healthy infant who should have had a future.
Lamell was taken to a hospital after the incident and later booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on a second-degree murder charge. On July 16, a Jefferson Parish Grand Jury indicted her, and her arraignment was scheduled for July 17, but she refused to leave her cell, causing a disruption that forced a rescheduling to July 20. As of now, the case remains active with no trial date set, and Lamell is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Investigators reached out to her family, who had not seen her in years and had no idea she was pregnant. Lees Naccarri, founder of Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies, a New Orleans nonprofit that provides dignified funerals for abandoned infants, coordinated with relatives to arrange a service for Jeremiah. They were very saddened by the whole event and expressed that they would have taken in the baby had they known, Naccarri said.
This baby would have been alive today and his mother wouldn’t be in jail.
The tragedy has reignited attention on Louisiana’s Safe Haven Law, which allows parents to anonymously surrender a newborn up to 60 days old at any designated location, such as a police station, firehouse, or hospital, with no questions asked and no criminal charges, as long as the baby is unharmed and handed directly to a person. Deputy Chief DeMarco emphasized this in the days after Jeremiah’s death. That child could have been brought here to a firehouse, to a hospital, he said.
The mother would have had no consequences. As long as you’re handing them over to a person and not leaving them outside in the natural elements. No questions asked.
No criminal charges can be brought against you. Mike Labreche, fire chief of the David Crockett Fire Company, confirmed that crews are prepared to accept safe haven surrenders, reiterating that parents can bring a baby up to 60 days old as long as it hasn’t been harmed.
Stedman, who had fed Lamell during her time on the streets, expressed her anguish. You could have brought the baby to the fire station, police station, anywhere instead of having the baby in the porta-potty and leaving it, she said. You could have given that child to anybody.
You could have come up here by us where you asked us for food and help. On April 29, 2026, one month and three days after his death, Jeremiah was honored with a jazz second line funeral organized and paid for by Compassionate Burials for Indigent Babies. Some of Lamell’s relatives attended.
He was buried at St. Patrick’s Cemetery Number One in New Orleans in the nonprofit’s official crypt. Naccarri described the service as respectful, moving, and loving.
Throughout the funeral, the deacon reminded us that we cannot let baby Jeremiah’s death be in vain, she said. We must continue to remind people that the Safe Haven Law exists to help women and prevent tragedies such as this.
In a separate but equally disturbing case in Powell, Wyoming, a 26-year-old woman, Richelle Lena Alana Vinita Lorraine Rule Monroe, has been charged with aggravated child 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 after a 4-year-old boy told authorities she poured boiling water on his ear because she found him ugly. The boy, who cannot be named due to his age and status as a surviving victim, was born in 2022 and was living in a rural home with Monroe and his father, who was out of town for work on the night of July 1, 2026. According to the charging statement from Park County Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Skoric, Monroe admitted to having water heating on the stove for oatmeal, claiming she took it off without realizing the boy was nearby, and the water splashed onto his left ear.
She did not seek medical attention that night, waiting until the next morning when the ear was red and swollen to take him to Powell Valley Hospital.
Hospital staff and a Wyoming Department of Family Services caseworker noticed multiple bruises and scabs on the boy’s arms, legs, face, and nose. A forensic nurse documented partial thickness burns and blisters to his left ear, bruising to his left eye with a corneal abrasion, bruises and abrasions all over his face and body, and a skin tear near his gluteal cleft. A CT scan revealed possible subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages, a scalp hematoma, and a possible fracture to the occipital bone at the lower back of the skull.
Dr. Kelly Christiansen, a child 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 specialist, documented multiple abrasions very concerning for a child of this age, along with multiple bruises in different stages of healing, and flagged the delay in care as alarming. The boy was taken into protective custody, where he told his foster parent that Monroe put the hot water on his ear because she found him ugly.
He repeated the same account to law enforcement, adding that she had thrown him down the stairs, indicating a history of intentional harm.
On July 8, an air ambulance transported the boy to the University of Utah’s Burn Center, where specialists from Intermountain Health Primary Children’s Hospital examined him and determined the injuries were non-accidental, with the burn on his ear classified as third-degree. Monroe was arrested on July 10 after being asked to come to the Park County Annex for a urine test, which she did, but was instead taken into custody. She has been charged with one count of aggravated child 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮, a felony carrying a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
At her initial appearance on July 13 in Park County Circuit Court, Skoric argued for a $150,000 cash-only bond, calling it an extremely serious case. The state believes the danger to the community posed by the defendant in this type of case is significant, he said. Either way, we’ve got serious injuries to a child, and in the state’s estimation, there’s not much more public safety risk than someone causing harm to a 4-year-old child.
Monroe’s attorney, Brandon Vilos, argued that there were explanations for the injuries and that his client had given them. He noted that Monroe had no criminal history, grew up in Big Horn County, and had made Park County her home for years, with relatives present in the courtroom. He also pointed out that Monroe’s own child, who is the same age as the victim, had never been the subject of any allegations and had not been taken into protective custody.
Vilos pushed back on the flight risk, saying she voluntarily went to the annex when asked and had hired a lawyer, showing she was not intending to run. Judge Joey Darrah set bond at $125,000 cash or surety, allowing Monroe to potentially be released through a bondsman for around $12,500. A preliminary hearing was tentatively set for July 22.
As Monroe has yet to go to trial, she is considered innocent until proven guilty.
The boy remains hospitalized at the burn center in Utah, expected to stay for some time. There is no funeral, no burial, no headstone for him because, thank goodness, he is alive. He is 4 years old, in protective custody, and somewhere in the middle of all that trauma, he told a foster parent why he was burned.
He said it was because he was ugly. And I’m sure that wasn’t true at all. The cases highlight a devastating failure of systems designed to protect the most vulnerable, with both infants and children falling through cracks that safe haven laws and child protective services are meant to seal.
In Louisiana, Jeremiah’s death has become a rallying cry for awareness, with advocates urging every woman to know that there is always an option to surrender a baby safely, no questions asked. In Wyoming, the 4-year-old’s survival offers a glimmer of hope, but his scars, both physical and emotional, will last a lifetime. As investigations continue, the communities of Gretna and Powell grapple with the horror of what happened and the urgent need to prevent it from ever happening again.
