Upstate NY mom posted she was ‘drunk asf’ hours before missing baby found alone, dying in utility tunnel

An upstate New York mother posted she was “drunk asf” on social media hours before her missing baby daughter was found dying in a cold, wet utility tunnel at an electric plant.

Persia Nelson, 24, is facing murder charges in the tragic death of 11-month-old Halo Branton, who died after she was found by a search team in a utility tunnel at Schenectady’s General Electric plant with water near her head, according to reports.

“I’m drunk asf don’t play with me right now lmfaooo,” had posted to Facebook to hours before Halo was found down the 8-foot tunnel where she was either dropped or hidden.

The disturbing ordeal began Saturday night, when GE staff told police they found an unauthorized woman on the premises who said she had lost her child and had no memory of how she arrived there, according to the Times Union.

The baby was found after a desperate, 12-hour, multi-agency overnight search featuring drones and police dogs, authorities reportedly said.

But the rescue came too late for Halo, who died of exposure and hypothermia at a local hospital, authorities said.

Halo’s disappearance came as the area was hit with a winter storm, and added to alleged “depraved indifference” on Nelson’s part, which influenced the murder charge, authorities told the Albany paper.

She is facing murder and manslaughter charges and was held on $500,000 cash and $1 million bond, according to the article.

“The mother was in a heated building. This utility enclosure with the 8-foot drop was where the baby was dropped or placed or hidden,” Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney reportedly said at a Monday press conference.

About two hours before Halo was found, an Amber Alert was issued Sunday morning in connection with a baby reported missing from a Schenectady residence Saturday evening. It was canceled six minutes after officials made the harrowing discovery, according to the article.

Nelson had been living in the Capital Region since November, first at an Albany County shelter before moving to the Electric City with a boyfriend, prosecutors said.

She and her daughter had been at a gathering near the GE plant when the suspect somehow managed to enter GE property with the victim in tow, authorities said.

A woman who said she was related to Halo’s father told the paper the man had been fighting for custody of the baby.

“He’s grieving, my family’s grieving. She was beautiful, she was charming, she was very intelligent,” she said. “She looked just like her father.”