TAMPA – Hillsborough prosecutor Suzy Lopez on Friday charged a 19-year-old former University of Tampa student with aggravated manslaughter in the death of a newborn child that police found in a dorm room trash can in April.

Brianna L. Moore was arrested in her home state of Mississippi. At the time of the incident, she told Tampa police that she did not know she was pregnant but may have been in denial, according to case files. She admitted that she gave birth in the bathroom of her room in McKay Hall, a dormitory on the university campus. Police later found the newborn girl wrapped in a towel in a trash bag.

“This is a case that I have struggled with,” Lopez said in a news conference Friday. “This is a case that kept me up at night.”

Prosecutors worked with Tampa police for six months and even sought the advice of “nationally known experts” to ensure they made the right decision, Lopez said. She described the case as legally nuanced and said she wanted to ensure there was no “rushed judgment.”

Lopez’s voice shook as she spoke about the crime. She recalled going to the crime scene late Sunday night and seeing the bag containing the child’s remains next to a dumpster.

“So many people told me they took the little girl into their home and raised her like their own child,” Lopez said. “But the bottom line is: Brianna Moore took actions that directly led to the death of this newborn girl. And in doing so she broke the law.”

Moore will await extradition proceedings to return to Hillsborough County, a process that could take weeks. Lopez said she didn’t know whether Moore had hired an attorney to represent her.

Moore lived with four other girls in a room in McKay Hall, next to the Hillsborough River. A search warrant affidavit released earlier this year detailed an investigation that began after Moore’s roommates called police and reported hearing a crying baby and a possible miscarriage on April 27.

The call was classified as medical in nature. According to the affidavit, Moore said the blood in the dorm bathroom was from menstruation.

The next evening, police were called again with a report that university campus security had found “a deceased fetus in a bag,” according to the affidavit. Students said they gave the dorm trash bag to security officers because they considered it suspicious given the events of the previous day.

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According to the affidavit, police found a dead newborn baby girl wrapped in a towel in the bag.

Moore told police she hadn’t had a period in about a year and didn’t know she was pregnant but “may have been in denial,” the affidavit said.

She said she became sick the day before and gave birth in the bathroom between two adjacent dorm rooms, the affidavit said. She said the baby cried for about five seconds and when she put him to her breast she stopped crying. She held the baby to her breast for a few minutes and then placed him on a towel.

Moore told police she thought the baby was dead when she placed her hand on the baby’s chest and felt nothing, the affidavit said. She showered, cleaned the infant with water from the shower and wrapped him in a towel.

Moore said she brought the baby wrapped in a towel into her room, placed him on the floor and fell asleep for about an hour, the affidavit said. When she woke up around 11 a.m. that day, the baby still showed no signs of life, so she put the baby in a trash can and continued sleeping.

A medical examiner found the baby had a broken spine and broken ribs and bleeding in the lungs, prosecutors said. The cause of death was asphyxia. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.

In addition to the involuntary manslaughter charge, Moore is also accused of child neglect, unlawful storage of human remains and failure to report a death.

Lopez pointed out that Florida’s safe haven law allows parents to anonymously surrender unwanted newborns to hospital staff or a fire station within 30 days of birth.

“It breaks my heart to know that if this woman had informed authorities that she needed help, this little girl could still be alive today,” Lopez said. “This little girl’s death was completely preventable.”