Costco receipt helps tie Bay Area woman to baby found dead in dumpster

A woman who killed her baby and left the newborn’s body in a Bay Area apartment complex dumpster has been sentenced to six years in a state prison. The identity of the baby, and the baby’s mother, remained a mystery until a DNA breakthrough last year.

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On May 18, 2009, a man searching for recycling was digging through a dumpster at the Parkside Apartments in Union City. Among bloody clothes and a Costco receipt, the man found the body of a newborn baby girl. Union City police named the unknown baby Matea Esperanza and paid for her gravesite at Chapel of the Chimes. 

Police interviewed residents at the apartment complex and identified a physical therapist named Angela Beth Onduto, then in her 30s, as a possible person of interest. But with no further evidence, they could not charge her with a crime. 

The investigation remained open, and last year detectives used new DNA technology to identify possible parents of the baby. Detectives flew to Denver, where Onduto was living, to obtain a DNA sample; the sample was a parental match for the baby, police said. In addition, the Costco receipt tied Onduto to the crime scene, prosecutors said. “Angela expressed no remorse,” detectives wrote in a charging document. The baby’s father has not been publicly identified. 

Onduto was arrested and extradited to Alameda County to face murder charges. While her legal proceedings continued, a county judge revoked her medical license to practice physical therapy. Onduto’s legal representation argued the case had nothing to do with her career, writing that she “labored for hours overnight and gave birth alone in her bathtub, then drowned the baby almost immediately post-partum,” the Mercury News reported.

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In April, Onduto, now 47, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. A plea of no contest means the defendant does not admit guilt but will accept the punishment for the crime. Last week, a judge sentenced Onduto to six years in state prison.

Court records show Onduto has been credited with 365 days already served, plus an additional 54 days for good conduct while in custody. She’s currently being held at the Santa Rita Jail before being transferred to the women’s prison in Chowchilla.