KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The mother of an infant, whose body was found decomposing in a wooded area in Kansas City during Mother’s Day weekend in 2023 was sentenced to three years of probation for abandoning her daughter’s body.

Raeleena Barlett was initially charged, on Aug. 18, 2023, with abandoning the corpse of her 6-month-old daughter, Kha’liya Bridgewater, according to a Jackson County complaint document.

Police officers found the infant dead near a 19-acre lot at 4015 Pittman Road, in Kansas City’s Ashland Ridge neighborhood, on May 13, 2023.

Barlett pleaded guilty to abandonment of a corpse in Jackson County court on April 10, according to a plea document. The same day, a judge sentenced her to serve three years of probation for abandoning Kha’liya’s body.

As part of her probation, Barlett will be required to receive mental health treatment and continue drug treatment, according to the plea document.

Officers were called to the lot around 7:45 p.m. on May 13, 2023, after a caller reported a dead baby in the woods, according to a probable cause statement in support of Barlett’s arrest.

Investigators found the infant, later identified as Kha’liya, in “an advanced state of decomposition,” the statement said, with trash bags under and around her legs. A baby blanket and a small yellow headband were found nearby.

The Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her cause and manner of death as undetermined, according to the probable cause statement.

Days later, Barlett’s family members reached out to investigators after they heard about the infant on the news, the statement said.

A week before Kha’liya’s body was found, Barlett’s father, Marty Lammers, said the family was told the 6-month-old had died in her sleep. But Barlett wouldn’t answer any questions regarding her daughter’s death, including those regarding potential funeral arrangements.

Lammers said that after Kha’liya was found in the woods, Barlett told him to pick up the infant’s ashes and death certificate.

The woman provided several conflicting stories to both witnesses and investigators. She allegedly told one witness she found Kha’liya “blue in the face,” before calling emergency services. She reportedly told others the baby died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

At the time, police confirmed no reports had been made to medical examiners in the metro area regarding the death of a 6-month-old.

DNA testing indicated “very strong support” that Barlett was the dead infant’s biological mother, according to the statement.

Both Barlett and her boyfriend, who was detained at the time on an unrelated warrant, gave investigators conflicting versions of events surrounding Kha’liya’s death.

Barlett told investigators she had last seen her boyfriend holding Kha’liya, who was choking, to his chest, according to the statement. He didn’t allow Barlett into the room, and later told her the infant had gone to sleep, she said.

When Barlett later checked on the baby, she said she found her dead, the statement said. Barlett said she tried to call police, but her boyfriend had broken her phone and wouldn’t let her leave.

The next morning, Barlett said the boyfriend buckled the dead infant into a car seat and said he was going to Arkansas.

At Barlett’s apartment, investigators found a stripped car seat near the front door, a roll of white trash bags “consistent with the trash bags recovered from the body,” and a hooked syringe containing an unknown substance, according to the probable cause statement.

Barlett’s boyfriend told investigators he hadn’t seen the infant in the two weeks prior to Mother’s Day. He called Barlett a bad mother, saying Kha’liya was malnourished, according to the statement.

Lammers described his granddaughter, Kha’liya, as “a happy baby.” He said she was “a very adorable baby, very lovable.”

A funeral for Kha’liya was held in July 2023.

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—The Star’s Andrea Klick and Bill Lukitsch contributed reporting.

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