Body of newborn found on recycling plant conveyor

VICTORVILLE, Calif.— An autopsy was planned on a baby girl whose body was found on a conveyor belt by a worker sorting out cans and plastics at a Southern California recycling center.

Authorities said the body was found wrapped in a blanket Thursday morning at the plant in Victorville, about 85 miles north of Los Angeles.

Homicide detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department were investigating. The infant’s age was not immediately known, but authorities said she appeared to be a newborn.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said Friday that there were few leads in the case.

“No one has come forward to identify the baby,” she said. “So until the autopsy is done, there are a lot of questions that can’t be answered.”

The recycling center serves residents and businesses in the high desert region northeast of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains.

It’s the latest case of bodies discovered at recycling centers in Southern California.

Last year, a newborn baby girl was found in the recycling yard of a Los Angeles County waste collection firm. In 2011, a woman’s body was discovered in the trash at a Los Angeles recycling center. That same year, a woman’s body was recovered from a trash sorting facility in Los Angeles.

In 2010, a decomposed body was found in a pile of trash at a recycling center in Los Angeles’ Chinatown neighborhood.