An affidavit made by the Blackfoot Police Department says that an 18-year-old woman from Twin Falls put her newborn daughter in her black Audi just hours after giving birth in the middle of October.
The young woman put the newborn baby in an “upright position,” wrapped her in a towel, and put a seat belt around her small body. Then she drove east for two hours to Blackfoot, which has the only Safe Haven Baby Box in the state.
Grove Creek Medical Center staff “quickly realized” the baby had died before she was put in the box when they opened it minutes later, according to a news release from Safe Haven Baby Boxes, a group that helps put the boxes in places across the country.
“Our hearts are broken.” To be clear, this is an illegal and dangerous abandoning, said Monica Kelsey, founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, in the release. “Anonymity is only allowed when an infant is given up safely and without any harm.”
After more than a month, the mother of the baby has been charged by the police. A news statement from the Blackfoot Police Department says the young woman is facing a felony charge for not telling police or the coroner about the death of her newborn daughter. She could get up to 10 years in jail and a $50,000 fine if she is found guilty.
Idaho law says that babies younger than 30 days can be given up as long as they are “personally delivered” to a hospital, fire station, police department, or medical service provider. According to the Safe Haven Act, the agency can’t ask the parent’s name, and if the agency does know the parent’s name, it has to keep that information secret.
Sen. Julie VanOrden, R-Pinegree, pushed the Legislature to change the law, and earlier this year Gov. Brad Little did so. The new law now covers newborn safety devices like the baby box. In July, Grove Creek Medical Center put in the only baby box in the state.
Because we are the only group that lets people resign anonymously, Kelsey said, “we are in the lead of teaching people how this program works.” “We will keep teaching people about the big differences between illegally leaving a baby behind and legally giving up a healthy baby.”
The affidavit said birth child was “cold to the touch”
The statement says that around 1 p.m. on October 13, officers from the Blackfoot Police Department were called to Grove Creek, a hospital that specializes in labor and delivery, after being told that medical staff had found the baby.
The statement said that both police and medical staff at the scene saw that the baby was “cold to the touch, blue, and non-responsive,” which meant that the girl had been dead for a while. Officers also said they saw lividity, which is a change in the color of the skin caused by blood settling and pooling, as well as a placenta that was still connected.
For “anonymity reasons,” the hospital’s cameras didn’t look directly at the Safe Haven box. However, the affidavit says that detectives saw a black Audi drive through the area in front of the box and quickly leave. The car didn’t have legal plates, but it did have a Carmax sign on it, which detectives said helped them figure out who the young woman was.
Police talked to the woman and found out that she had given birth at home on the evening of October 12 when her family wasn’t there. The statement said she said the baby was still alive when she gave birth. The 18-year-old ran away from her family when she found out she was pregnant.
The woman told the cops that the baby cried and made noise after she gave birth. According to the statement, the woman said she tried to breastfeed her daughter several times and slept with the baby in her room that night. The woman said she looked for a haven box online and picked one up in Blackfoot. She then drove to the hospital.
When cops asked the woman when she last heard the baby cry, she said it was in the morning of Oct. 13 and that she thought she heard her daughter making noises in the car, but she “could not be sure.”
The affidavit says that the woman lied to police during the interview when she said that she had parked by a nearby restaurant for about an hour while she thought about whether or not to leave her baby. The statement said that video from Cal Ranch showed the woman driving through the parking lot “briefly.”
In the days and hours after leaving her baby, the woman also looked up several things on the internet, including, “If a baby dies before being placed in the haven will you still get in trouble?”
The woman was given $10,000 bail by Bingham County Magistrate Judge Cleve Colson on Friday, after hearing from both the state and the defense. At first, her bond was set at $75,000. Court records show that the woman has a hearing at the Bingham County Courthouse on Dec. 5 at 8:30 a.m. She has paid a bond to get out of jail.
