A 27-year-old Texas woman has been sentenced to four years in prison for abandoning a dead infant in a gas station toilet in Houston last year.
Harris County District Judge Kristin M. Guiney handed down the sentence on Monday after Diana Guadalupe Zavala Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with evidence—human corpse, and one count of tampering/fabricating physical evidence with intent to impede an investigation.
Court records indicate that Zavala Lopez was credited with 489 days of time already served.
Zavala Lopez was arrested in August 2023 at a bus station in Brownsville, Texas, by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
She was described by federal authorities as a Mexican national who had overstayed her visitor visa and was attempting to flee to Mexico. Despite being labeled as a “homicide suspect” by federal officials, no homicide charges were filed against her.
Following her arrest, Houston Police indicated they would likely interview Zavala Lopez again to obtain further details, but at the time, the only charge was evidence tampering.
The investigation is ongoing, with a spokesperson for the Houston Police Department stating that more charges could potentially arise depending on the progress of the case.
The incident began on April 2, 2023, when a customer at a Shell gas station in southwest Houston discovered the body of a newborn in a restroom toilet. Houston Fire Department paramedics determined the child had been deceased for over an hour by the time the body was found.
Surveillance footage from the gas station showed Zavala Lopez entering and leaving the station shortly before the discovery of the infant’s body.
The footage, which was later released by the Houston Police Department, showed her walking into the station, spending about 15 minutes inside, and leaving without the child.
Houston Police Detective Calab Bowling clarified during a press conference that no one else had entered the restroom, and witness statements corroborated the belief that Zavala Lopez had given birth there. Authorities have not disclosed the infant’s name or cause of death.
