COUPLE WANTED IN CASE OF NEWBORN IN TRASH BIN.

Byline: Ivan Sciupac Daily News Staff Writer

Investigators searching for whoever abandoned an 8-pound newborn baby in a trash dumpster were hoping Sunday to identify a couple seen in the area.

``We're hoping that someone may know one of the two people wanted for questioning,'' said Carrie Stuart, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. ``But right now it's kind of a shot in the dark.''

Witnesses told police they saw the man and the woman, boarding a bus bound for Santa Clarita, outside the Antelope Valley Mall at 8:45 a.m. Friday.

The man was described as 30 to 35 years old, about 6 feet 2 and 180 pounds, with graying short black hair. He had a day-old growth of beard and was wearing a white sports hat, dark blue shorts and a short-sleeve black polo shirt with a white feather pattern on the front.

The woman was described as 23 to 26, 5 feet 7 or 5 feet 8, about 200 pounds, with long, dark-brown hair, gray eyes and good teeth. She was wearing a blue shirt, dark-blue walking shorts and tan sandals. She appeared pale and ill, possibly from very recently giving birth, police said.

The newborn was discovered in the dumpster Friday by a man looking for recyclables. The child was 4 to 6 hours old, wrapped in a towel and enclosed in a trash bag in the garbage bin outside an apartment complex in the 3300 block of West Avenue J-4.

Police said they were following all leads.

The African-American infant was taken to Antelope Valley Hospital and remains in stable condition there.

Those with information in the case were asked to call the Sheriff's Department at [phone].

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PHOTO (1 -- 2) Composite drawings depict a man and a woman sought fo r questioning in the abandonment of a newborn child in Lancaster.