Witness Says NJ Mother Who Allegedly Set Infant On Fire Told Him She Was 'Burning Dog Poop'

By Cleve Bryan

PEMBERTON Twp., NJ (CBS) – A 22-year-old woman charged with murdering her newborn baby by setting the infant on fire Friday night is expected to make her first court appearance on Tuesday.

Police say Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier, of Pemberton Township, doused her newborn baby with a flammable liquid, then set the child on fire in the middle Simontown Road.

"We're having trouble sleeping a little bit," says Dave Joseph who walked out his front door to see a flaming heap in the road and Dorvilier walking toward his wife and him.

"She said 'are you the owner of the land?' and I said yes I own this land what are you doing here? 'My dog pooped in my truck and I'm burning poop'," recalls Joseph.

The Josephs walked over to make sure she cleaned up the mess and when water hit the flames they say what was really burning.

"My wife screamed, it's a baby, Dave, it's a baby," says Joseph who is upset the baby was never given a chance to live and that perhaps Dorvilier didn't know what resources were available to her.

Under New Jersey's Safe Haven Infant Protection Act a mother can anonymously drop off a baby younger than 30 days old at any police station or hospital emergency room.

It can even be another friend or family member, so long as the baby has no signs of abuse there are no criminal charges.

"Take the child to emergency room, take child to the police station. If you don't have a ride pick up the phone. I know my police officers would more than gladly go pick up the child at somebody's residence," says Pete Alfinito, president of the Burlington County Fraternal Order of Police.

For more information you can visit http://www.njsafehaven.org/ or call  1-877-839-2339.