Two pregnant women had frequented home where dead baby was found, neighbor says

SAN ANTONIO – The decomposing body of a baby was found in a suitcase seized during a raid at a home on the Far West Side Tuesday afternoon.

Authorities with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office were called to a home in the area of Bronco Lane and Gunsmoke Drive for what began as a drug raid.

"We came in expecting one thing and it turned out to be something totally different," Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salzar said.

While officials have only located drug paraphernalia, Salazar said the focus of their investigation has shifted. Authorities are now working to determine who the infant was.

Salazar said that the body was found in a piece of luggage seized during the raid. The infant was fully clothed and wrapped in a blanket. 

Salazar said it's too early in the investigation to determine how the child died, describing the body as "beyond decomposed."

At least 12 people were detained for questioning, but everyone was eventually released. The Sheriff's Office said no charges were filed Tuesday.

Salazar said that neighbors have been complaining about the home "for some time." 

Alejandro Antu said he grew up in the neighborhood and that he began noticing unusual activity at the home two or three years ago. From people visiting the home at all hours of the night, to seeing people with backpacks come in and out of the home, he suspected something was amiss.

"It's concerning -- more the fact that we're right next to an elementary school," Antu said. "That's the biggest concern to me because you have kids walking back and forth early in the morning and after school. You just never know what's going to happen."

Janet Geaslin said that she's lived in the neighborhood for 55 years and, like Antu, she noticed a change in the area when people moved into the home at the focus of the Sheriff's Office's investigation.

"We lock ourselves in our gates because of that house," Geaslin said. "They ran the people at the corner out. They ran everybody out of here."

Geaslin said she saw two pregnant women frequent the home and that one pregnancy ended approximately two years ago and the other ended six months ago.

"We never saw any babies," Geaslin said. "And we said, 'Where's your kid?' 'Oh he's gone. 'That's all they said, so we just assumed (they) had him at the hospital and dropped him, because that's what they were telling other people they were doing, is 'I'm giving birth to these babies and leaving them at the hospital.'"

Authorities are awaiting autopsy results to determine the exact cause of the baby's death and identity of the infant before any arrests are made.

Those with information in the case are asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 210-335-6070.