Sheriff: Baby found dead in diaper box, mother in custody

A South Carolina sheriff says an 11-month-old girl whose disappearance prompted a brief Amber Alert has been found dead in a diaper box and the mother is in custody.

Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the child’s mother, who had reported a kidnapping, was being held.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Several media outlets identified the baby as Harlee Lewis.

Brooks says the body of the infant was found in a field about 1,000 yards behind a home in Chesterfield in the state’s north. Brooks says the child’s mother initially reported someone attacked her and took the child from her arms as she checked the mail Tuesday afternoon.

Brooks says the Amber Alert was canceled “because we don’t think there was a kidnapping.”

Brooks declined to identify the mother to the Associated Press or give further specifics, saying the death was under investigation.

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