Cops: Dead 3-month-old apparently attacked by rats

A baby girl is dead, and it appears rats attacked the infant in Westwego.

"It could be in the hundreds of bites on the infant,” Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch said.

The house at 721 Central Avenue is in poor condition.

"There are holes in the walls. There are holes in the floor," Munch said.  "It's not something that you would want to be raising a family in."

The parents told police that they found her in her crib around 7:00am Thursday.  The mother said she had fed her just a few hours earlier.

Authorities identified the infant as Natalie Hill.

Munch said there was a lot of blood and the rats apparently tore the tissue from the baby's leg and face.  He described bloody animal foot prints leading away from the crib.

"The parents said they had a rodent problem," Munch said. "They had traps out."

An autopsy was performed Thursday, but authorities did not release details and said they did not know if the baby was attacked and killed or died from other causes before the apparent rat attack.  Tests were pending.

Munch described the inside of the house as cluttered, but indicated it was not necessarily dirty.

Code enforcement arrived at the scene to determine of the house should be condemned.

There was another child living in the house too.  Child protective services came to the home.