YORK, Pa. (AP) — A 21-year-old Pennsylvania woman told police she had no clue she was pregnant before she gave birth at home, put her unresponsive newborn into a shoebox and stored it in an upstairs closet.
Kelsey Martin, of Springettsbury Township, was charged Jan. 28 with concealing the death of a child, a misdemeanor.
Her lawyer Christopher Ferro told Pennlive.com (http://bit.ly/20JryrH) the incident was a "horrible but explainable tragedy" and urged the public to withhold judgment on his client.
According to police, Martin went to a hospital in April with abdominal pains and was told she had a urinary tract infection and given antibiotics.
Later that day Martin was bleeding heavily and taken to a hospital in an ambulance. An examination there showed she had given birth, but police said she denied it.
Martin eventually told police that earlier in the day she thought she had to go to the bathroom but gave birth. The baby wasn't breathing, she said, and she shook it in hopes of some response. After the baby didn't respond, she placed it in the shoebox, police said.
Police and family members found two boxes in the upstairs closet: one with bloodied clothing and the second with the newborn's body, which police said was still warm. Family members and police officers performed CPR on the baby but it was pronounced dead.
An autopsy failed to reveal if the child was born alive.
It wasn't clear why the charges came eight months after the birth.
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