$2 Million Bail For Woman Charged With Cutting Fetus From Friend's Womb
CONCORD, N.H. (CBS/AP) A Massachusetts woman accused of cutting the fetus out of her pregnant friend and claiming she'd just had a baby girl was ordered held on $2 million bail Thursday, a day after she was found with the live infant at a homeless shelter.
Julie Corey, 35, of Worcester, Mass., who was arrested Wednesday at the shelter in Plymouth, N.H., appeared in Concord District Court via video from the county jail. She did not waive extradition to be brought back to Massachusetts.
Corey said little during the hearing, at which Judge Gerald Boyle ordered all police affidavits in the case sealed.
Police say they were alerted by acquaintances, who became suspicious of Corey's claims that she had just given birth and then heard the news about a neighbor whose dead body was found in a closet, with a fetus removed from her womb.
The body of Darlene Haynes, a 23-year-old mother of three who was eight months pregnant, was found Monday in her Worcester, Mass., apartment by her landlord, who was led to her by the "horrifying smell."
The exact cause of Haynes' death has yet to be determined pending toxicology tests, but Worcester said the autopsy indicated Haynes suffered head injuries.
The baby girl was in good condition at Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth, where she was brought in at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Hospital spokeswoman Michele Hutchins said the staff was working with police and state child protection authorities to resolve legal and custody issues for the baby, who is merely days old.
Corey told acquaintances that she delivered the baby sometime late Thursday or early Friday at an undisclosed hospital, and by later Friday was showing the newborn off to acquaintances, police said.
"Some friends became a little concerned about how she got home so early after just giving birth," Worcester Police Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst said.
Neighbors say Corey and a man she was with at the homeless shelter, 27-year-old Alex Dion, used to live in the same building and knew Darlene Haynes through her boyfriend, Roberto Rodriguez. Dion was taken into custody and released to a family member.
Haynes had a restraining order against her boyfriend. Her landlord said Rodriguez moved out of the apartment last month.
Agnes Brady, a neighbor, said Corey knew Haynes through Rodriguez. She described Corey as very friendly, and recalled her once baking a lasagna for all of the neighbors in the apartment building. Brady's son, Randy LaRose, said Corey had an 11-year-old son from a previous relationship, who also lived in the apartment.
After Haynes was found Monday in a closet at her Worcester apartment, it was not until an autopsy that authorities discovered the fetus was missing.
"The baby had a ribbon tied around the umbilical cord — not your normal umbilical cord-severing device, and with that it's pretty certain this is the baby from the murdered woman," Lt. Terry Kinneen, of the New Hampshire State Police, told WMUR-TV in Concord on Thursday.
Corey, Dion and the baby arrived at the homeless shelter in Plymouth, about 40 miles north of Concord, Tuesday night, director Catherine Bentwood confirmed. She said the baby looked comfortable. Corey identified herself as the mother and agreed to have the baby seen by a local pediatrician.
Bentwood said the shelter received a call about 5 p.m. Wednesday asking if staffers could keep Corey there. Officers arrived shortly afterward and arrested her.
The Union Leader newspaper reported Thursday that Corey was arrested as she tried to leave the shelter with the infant after workers alerted police and a nurse began photographing the baby with her cell phone.
The judge has ordered another hearing in the case for Aug. 30.
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July 30, 2009 - Police Find Baby Cut From Womb
July 29, 2009 - Woman Murdered, Fetus Stolen from Womb