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California Mom to Face Murder Charge in Death of Infant

Samantha Green, 23, was booked Friday and will be charged with murder after her 3-week-old child was found dead in a swampy area near Sacramento.
Samantha Green
Samantha GreenYolo County Sheriff Department

A Northern California mother will be charged with murder in the death of her 3-week-old infant, whose body was found in a swampy area Wednesday, the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday.

Samantha Green, 23, was arrested Friday and will be charged with murder, Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto said.

The infant’s body was found in heavy underbrush in a slough northwest of Sacramento Wednesday morning after a statewide search that began after Green called 911 Tuesday, NBC station KCRA reported. The infant died from either hypothermia or drowning, the coroner said.

"This is probably one of the top five worst situations I personally have been involved in or seen," Prieto told the station Saturday. He said Green was booked at the Yolo County Jail Friday and will be charged with murder, but the district attorney will decide what degree of the charge she will face.

Green and her baby, who was 20 days old, were reported missing on Monday. On Tuesday, she showed up in Knight’s Landing, about 20 miles northwest of Sacramento on the banks of the Sacramento River, in state investigators described as "crying and hysterical" and without her child, the station reported.

Green’s family have told KCRA that that she said someone else is to blame for her child’s death and her disappearance, but Prieto told reporters Saturday that, "We have come to the conclusion that Mrs. Green was the sole individual responsible for the death of her child," without going into details.