Mom left dead baby’s body at tire store in 2017, MO cops say. Now she pleads guilty
A mother accused of abandoning her dead baby’s body inside a backpack behind a tire store in 2017 has pleaded guilty, according to Missouri officials and local news outlets.
The 3- to 5-month-old baby’s remains were found in a backpack nested in a stack of old tires in 2019, two years after her death, officials told KMOU.
The mother pleaded guilty to abandonment of a corpse and involuntary manslaughter on Nov. 4, according to court records.
The infant, identified by Columbia police as Samone, died from positional asphyxiation when her father put her in an unsafe sleeping position, according to court documents and KRCG.
The father also pleaded guilty to the same charges on Aug. 30, court records show. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
McClatchy News reached out to attorneys for both parents but did not immediately hear back.
A social media post by the father in 2020 linked him to the infant’s remains, but it took until 2022 to file charges against both parents, according to the Columbia Missourian and court records.
The father was charged after letters addressed to police were found in his wallet, officials told the newspaper. One of the letters said the mother found the baby with a towel wrapped around her neck and blood coming from her mouth, court documents said, according to the Columbia Missourian.
The mother is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 16.
This story was originally published November 7, 2024 at 12:22 PM with the headline "Mom left dead baby’s body at tire store in 2017, MO cops say. Now she pleads guilty."
