Courtney Minor, 36, was arrested and charged with capital murder in the death of her newborn child, according to police.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A North Texas mother was arrested Sunday, accused of the 2024 murder of her newborn baby, according to jail records.
The Fort Worth Police Department said Courtney Minor, 36, of Fort Worth, was arrested on Aug. 24.
FWPD’s Crimes Against Children Unit said Minor confessed to the murder of her newborn child after the infant was found dead inside an apartment complex dumpster on July 14, 2024. Police said Minor placed the infant into a suitcase, rolled the luggage to a dumpster at the apartment complex at 4700 Norma Street, and threw the suitcase with the baby inside into the dumpster.
Someone later found the infant dead and reported the discovery to the police.
Minor was booked into jail on Sunday and faces two charges: capital murder of a person under 10 and abuse of a corpse. She is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
Parents may surrender an unharmed infant younger than 60 days old to any firehouse, EMS station, or hospital under Texas’s Safe Haven law. The medic or firefighter receiving the child may not ask any questions of the parent, except about the infant’s medical history. There are no repercussions for a parent who surrenders a child this way.
In 2023, Texas expanded its Safe Haven law to allow parents to leave their children in special, climate-controlled boxes installed outside some fire stations.