Calif. Mother Ana Diaz DeCeja Was Murdered for Her Baby, Say Police

PLANADA, Calif. (CBS/AP) Ana Diaz DeCeja, a Merced County mother whose 2-month-old son was found abandoned on a doorstep, was allegedly murdered by a couple looking to replace their miscarried child withDeCeja's infant.

DeCeja's badly burned body was found by farm workers in an orchard outside Snelling, Calif. on Dec. 2. Both she and her son had disappeared that same day, and the child was missing for five days before he was found wrapped in a blanket at a home in nearby Le Grand, in central California.

According to Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin, Teresa Robles, 33, and Jose Velarde, 37, confessed to luring DeCeja to their home and strangling her. They were arrested on suspicion of murder Wednesday and pled not guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping, child abuse, and making a false report to police.

The couple knew the victim and became better acquainted with her at a health clinic not long before she was murdered, Pazin said.

"The suspects used a ruse to lure Ana to their house," Pazin said. "Ana was then attacked by the husband, strangled, then driven dead to an orchard outside Snelling."

The husband attempted to dispose of the evidence by burning her body, Pazin said.

Shortly after the murder, the couple brought the infant to their home and introduced him to their three other children, but the couple panicked when they heard the media reporting on the story and decided to abandon the baby.

Investigators believed that baby was the missing boy, but had to confirm his identity through birth certificate footprints and DNA tests before returning him to his father Luis DeCeja.

The suspects, who have no criminal history, are being held in Merced County Jail without bail. Their children are in the custody of Child Protective Services.