(WWL-TV)- An infant whose body was found Wednesday afternoon in a garbage truck in Tangipahoa Parish appeared to be a stillborn, Sheriff Daniel Edwards said.

But even with a preliminary autopsy completed, many questions still remained about why the infant was thrown away, and Edwards said detectives were hoping to find the boy’s mother to make sure she was not in any medical danger.

“Make no mistake about it: this baby was not delivered at a hospital,” Edwards said. “This would’ve been delivered in someone’s home with very little to no training at all.”

It was not clear Thursday how long the baby’s remains were in the trash, Edwards said, but he noted it was not decomposed, leading investigators to believe it was not there long. It was also unknown how far along the baby was in the gestation process.

Edwards said the baby weighed about 3 pounds.

The baby’s remains were found in the back of a Waste Management garbage truck. Edwards said it’s likely that whoever threw away the remains lives somewhere along the route on which the truck travelled.

“It’s very possible the mother would live in this general area,” Edwards said, adding that the chances of one of the parents coming from somewhere else to throw the remains away were “pretty remote.”

Since the baby appeared to be stillborn, the mother likely would not be accused of any crime, Edwards said.

“The real question here is if we have a homicide on our hands,” Edwards said, reiterating that the early autopsy results did not indicate the baby was alive when he was delivered.

He reminded people that the state’s Safe Haven Law law allows for a baby to be dropped off at a location such as a hospital or fire house with no questions asked.

“You cannot and you will not be charged with a crime,” Edwards said.