Woman tells police: I didn’t kill my baby

The 32-year-old mother of a newborn girl found in a shallow grave on Friday morning is insisting that she did not kill her baby but had a stillbirth.

The woman, who was expected to undergo psychiatric evaluation yesterday, remains in police custody. She has again told police she did not harm her baby.

On Friday, at about 8 am, a resident of Gonzales Village, Point Fortin, was tending to his crops when he came across what appeared to be a mound of dirt.

The man dug up the mound to find the decomposing body of the baby wrapped in a piece of cloth and called the police. The body was retrieved and police detained the child’s mother who lived nearby. Police are going on her information that she delivered a stillborn baby at home, in October, and disposed of it at the back of the house, near a fig patch.

The mother was in the eighth month of her pregnancy. She told police she was home alone when she went into labour but did not kill the baby.

The mother lives with her common-law husband and their daughter. Police, however, are saying they have not ruled out foul play and that only an autopsy will determine if the baby’s death was natural.

The autopsy is expected to be done on Monday at the Forensic Science Centre, St James.

Police said if the findings of the autopsy coincide with the mother’s explanation, she might still face charges of concealing the birth of a child and illegally disposing of a body.