Local News in Brief : Death Tied to Baby Sale

The attempted black market purchase of an infant by a Los Angeles woman may have led to a murder in Nevada last month, authorities said Tuesday.

Las Vegas homicide investigators said they want Mary Lynn O’Connor, 36, for questioning in the death of Opra Robinson, 28, an unemployed mother of two whose burned body was found along a rural road northwest of Las Vegas. An autopsy revealed that she died of a blow to the head.

Robinson’s 1-year-old son was found wandering Feb. 24 in a Sears store in a Las Vegas mall, where Robinson had gone to have lunch with O’Connor, investigators said. The two women allegedly had struck a deal earlier in which O’Connor was to purchase Robinson’s 3-week-old daughter for between $1,500 and $2,500.

“The exact amount was never nailed down and we don’t believe that the money ever actually changed hands,” Detective Tom Dillard said. “The speculation was that O’Connor wanted the baby for the black market.”

Acting on a tip, Las Vegas police located the girl in a home and the two children are now in protective custody, Dillard said.

Los Angeles police arrested O’Connor on Friday in Bell Cudahy and she is being held on local warrants for robbery and forgery and a Nevada charge of embezzling a car.