Police: Woman Killed, Baby Cut From Womb

23-Year-Old Wash. State Woman Arrested After Police Find Baby, Boxcutter, Bloody Towels

(AP)  A nearly full-term baby boy cut from the body of its mother remained in critical condition Tuesday in a Spokane hospital.

Officials at Deaconess Medical Center, citing privacy laws, refused to release additional information.

Police in Kennewick provided no new details on the horrific killing of the child's mother last weekend. A woman has been jailed for the attack and the investigation is continuing, police spokesman Mike Blatman said.

Police cannot say if the two women knew each other and were trying to determine the motive for the attack, Blatman said.

Araceli Camacho Gomez, 27, of Pasco, was found dead of multiple stab wounds in a Kennewick park. She had been attacked late Friday night, her hands and feet were bound with yarn and an autopsy showed she died of chest wounds.

"The autopsy indicated additional cuts in the area of the uterus consistent with the cutting of the body to remove the child," Blatman said.

Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong, 23, of Kennewick, remained in the Benton County jail without bail after being arrested for investigation of aggravated first-degree murder. She tried to pass the infant boy off as her own in calls made late Friday night to emergency dispatchers, police said.

Arraignment is scheduled Wednesday in Kennewick. If Synhavong is charged with aggravated murder, Prosecutor Andrew K. Miller will then have 30 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

There is no telephone listing for the name Synhavong in the Tri-Cities area, which includes Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, but family members told KEPR Television she had been telling them she was pregnant and acting strangely in recent days. They said she worked with senior citizens and knew Camacho Gomez from work.

Friends of the dead woman's family told the Tri-City Herald that a woman, believed to be Synhavong, met Camacho Gomez on a bus Friday and offered to give her some baby clothes.

Synhavong, a 2004 graduate of Southridge High School, was married in May to Keun Synhavong, 35.

Five of her relatives attended a court hearing Monday in which Phiengchai spoke only to pronounce her name and to confirm that she understood her rights. A lawyer, Christopher A. Swaby, was appointed to represent her.

According to documents filed in court, blue mechanic's gloves soaked in blood, a boxcutter, bloody paper towels, yarn, a mucus bulb, baby bottle and baby socks were found in her purse. The court filings did not indicate whether the boxcutter was used to cut or stab Gomez.

Court documents allege that Synhavong called 911 at 11:04 p.m. Friday saying she was at a store, had just given birth and that she thought the baby had died.

The call ended, but the woman called again a few minutes later. Dispatchers traced the calls, and she was found in a parking lot with the baby, holding what appeared to be an umbilical cord. A "significant amount of blood and pieces of human tissue" were found in the back seat of a vehicle, documents said.

The site was a mile or two from the spot where Gomez's body was later found in Columbia Park.

Synhavong and the baby were taken to Kennewick General Hospital, where medical tests showed she had not recently given birth.

Camacho Gomez was found dead around 1 a.m. Saturday.

[barbaram99]

I live in WA state and we don''t like the drive by shootings. Now this.

[barbaram99]

What I am saying us that live in State will have to pay for her in court,lock up,her meals,med carw etc. And she pull this. Every state has its share of person off their rockers.
newster was calling the child an it. I meant to say computer is an it..FYI I am not from WA state.
Ye think she''ll get the right help-nope. what we have is a problem of baby crazy folks that do this..When I frist HEARD of this I was appalled and still am. In Maine she get her pay back. Out siders would hear nothing of this. why should we treat her in a humame manner when she killt a woman just to steal that child out of her body..That woman at the centre of this story showed no mercy. The state will give her mercy. She''ll most likely get life over death.

[apprxam]

what the f*ck is this sh*t?

[dr_j_g]

The horror of it was the victim, and it indicates how little respect and care and protection women have, including mothers of young and expecting mothers. that the perpetrator was a woman as well merely makes it more sensational - there have been enough incidents when the perpetrators were male, of course - and it still points to the same phenomena, of no respect for women even as mothers, life-givers, those that care for humanity and get little credit for it.

[andor3]

"I have to admire *** solution though: life without parole, .... [ description of torture and inhumane treatment]"

there is a reason people in the US feel that what you describe is immoral and wrong.

Either the perpetrator is
(a) sane, so just like you (well you may be a little worse based on your grisly fantasy)

(b) mentally ill, in which case he or she needs help, not abuse

[crazyivan32]

It is another mouth this planet doesnt need added to it. (Posted by newster1 at 10:16 PM : Jul 01, 2008)

Now that you mention it, so are you.

[ssm9451]

Just who ye all think gonna pay for her. Yep us that live here in WA state. She will sit in the prisom system. The child is part of a crime.
newster..the child is here and so he is a male. An it is this bloody computer. Just as yer not an it as ye are male or female.


Posted by BarbaraM99 at 10:56 PM : Jul 01, 2008
+ report abuse

I''m sorry-what are you trying to state here?

[barbaram99]

Just who ye all think gonna pay for her. Yep us that live here in WA state. She will sit in the prisom system. The child is part of a crime.
newster..the child is here and so he is a male. An it is this bloody computer. Just as yer not an it as ye are male or female.

[ssm9451]

Don''''t worry folks. After two or three years of trial at state expense, she may get the death penalty. Then after 20+ years of appeals, they will decide she''''s nuts and send her to a hospital for care at state expense. Then after she is cured, she will be back on the street with her box cutter.

You got this right!!! It''s a catch and release system.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by gunshack1 at 01:00 PM : Jul 01, 2008

[nothappyatall]

The baby boy was cut from the body of HIS mother. English uses natural gender.

Posted by maiingan

Nah, still an "it"

It is another mouth this planet doesnt need added to it.

[maiingan]

The baby boy was cut from the body of HIS mother. English uses natural gender.

[standlee5]

Why can''t Mexico get it''s citizens under control.

[barbaram99]

Whae we have is wemen bent on this. I saw something about this. They kill over a baby. Babies not theirs. This is what happens when little girls are tuaght one thing...having babies is the most important thing in life. Some can''t . So they do this. For a man,or aid. She is ill.

[minnick8-2009]

Women who think they can get away with this type of crime really are nut jobs. There is nothing about it that is sane. Whether the perp wants to baby to pass herself off as a woman with an American born infant, or if she wants it to raise as her own, or to sell for adoption, none of it is rational. They must be really uneducated not to know about DNA and blood types.

[vanman345]

What kind of name is Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong? I am curious. Possibly Cambodian or Russian?

Posted by docpeter at 01:37 PM : Jul 01, 2008

This happened where I live at, saw on local news last night that she''s from Laos.

Personally I believe the media coverage from the previous cases like this over the last couple of years have given nut jobs the idea. But in reality I''d hazard a guess that this has happened lots of other times but now the world hears about it the next day so it seems more common. I think dragonwagon5 hit the nail on the head.

[megamanx1-2009]

yay! :P

[moneybags77]

If she was sent by Satan, the child may be the second coming of Jesus.

[docpeter-2009]

What kind of name is Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong? I am curious. Possibly Cambodian or Russian?

[Gary Kempf]

That is one sick puppy!

[gunshack1]

Don''t worry folks. After two or three years of trial at state expense, she may get the death penalty. Then after 20+ years of appeals, they will decide she''s nuts and send her to a hospital for care at state expense. Then after she is cured, she will be back on the street with her box cutter.