An Iowa woman and her father are facing first-degree murder charges after allegedly placing a newborn baby in a trash bag and depositing it in a ditch while it was still alive, authorities say.
Megan Staude, 25, and her father, Rodney Staude, 64, were arrested and charged with first-degree murder after initially lying to police about the death of her newborn son, WHO 13 reported.
According to court documents, Staude’s co-workers contacted Norwalk police on March 8 over concerns about her newborn’s health. When police met with Staude, she reportedly told them she had given birth to the child at home, but while on the way to the hospital, the baby had died. Staude then reportedly told police she buried the baby in a cemetery. Despite searching the cemetery in question, police found no evidence of a freshly dug grave.
When police interviewed her father, however, he reportedly told police that after the baby died on the way to the hospital, he placed the child in a bag and left it in a ditch. Using cadaver dogs, police were able to recover the baby’s remains, according to the court document.
The baby’s mother allegedly confessed to police her son was alive for at least two days before she and her father placed him in a ditch. https://t.co/ERPoM9uo8j
— Des Moines Register (@DMRegister) March 14, 2023
Police were contacted March 12 by a witness who shared with authorities a messenger conversation with Megan in which she reportedly admitted the baby was still alive when he was left in the ditch, the court document revealed.
On March 13, Staude reportedly admitted to police that after she had given birth to the boy on Feb.24, she placed him in a box and neglected to provide care for him even as he cried on and off for two days, court documents stated. On Feb. 26, she and her father allegedly placed the still-living baby in a trash bag and deposited it in a ditch where police recovered the remains more than a week later. (RELATED: REPORT: ‘Utterly Horrific’ Discovery Made At Phoenix Homeless Encampment)
Iowa has a Safe Haven law which allows for an infant to be placed in state care up to three months after its birth without fear of prosecution.
“It’s just a tragic set of circumstances on a number of levels,” Norwalk Police Chief Greg Staples told The Des Moines Register. “That baby didn’t have the choice to decide his own fate and now there’s people in jail because of it.”