A baby at the center of an Amber Alert Tuesday afternoon was found dead in a field in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, and the child's mother was arrested, according to authorities.
The child, identified as 11-month-old Harlee Lewis, was reported missing by her mother, 19, around 2 p.m Tuesday, according to South Carolina authorities.
But Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks said deputies searched the area and found the body of the infant in a plastic bag hidden inside a diaper box about 1,000 yards from the home.
The woman first told deputies that she walked out to check her mailbox on Jackson Road East in northeast Chesterfield when a tan and gold-colored SUV stopped in the middle of the road and a white male wearing a black coat, toboggan, and one black glove got out of the vehicle. She said he punched her multiple times in the head before grabbing the baby and speeding away in the SUV.
Brooks said the 19-year-old is now the primary suspect in the case and he believes she made up the abduction story.
"She was home alone with that child since early this morning. Nobody heard anything. Nobody saw anything," he said.
Brooks also said the mother had recently been in a car accident, and that's where the injuries she said she received from the kidnapper actually came from.
The woman has not been identified and she has not yet been charged.
"It may be wrongful disposal of body, may be not reporting child death, may be murder, not sure," said Brooks.
An autopsy on the baby is pending.
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