The hunt is on for a Northern California man after the body of his infant daughter was found behind a mortuary in Southern California.

Authorities say an employee discovered 8-month-old Alexia Rose Echeverria in a car seat, covered by a blanket.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s office is calling her father, 22-year old Alexander Echeverria, a person of interest in his daughter’s death.

The baby girl was found dead beside a dumpster in Bellflower Monday morning.

“I just can’t believe he would just leave her there. She wasn’t trash, she wasn’t a doll. She was my little girl,” Karla Alvarado, Alexia’s mom, said.

22-year-old Alexander Echeverria, her father, is currently a person of interest in the case.

Alvarado says that Echeverria had told her that he was going to Bakersfield with the baby on Sunday and that he’d be back home in Sacramento Monday morning, but he never showed up.

“He contacted his brother yesterday and told him that he was playing with her…throwing her up (in the air) and he slipped and she fell and she wasn’t waking up. He said he got scared and drove to the hospital but he never went in because he thought no one was going to believe him that it was an accident,” Alvarado said.

At this time, investigators have not determined that cause of death.

It is also unknown if it was an accident.

Echeverria is believed to be driving a gray 2014 Volkswagen Jetta with California plates.

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