Woman charged in US over pregnancy killing

A woman who faked a pregnancy and panicked as her supposed due date grew near attacked a pregnant mother with a baseball bat and cut her full-term foetus from her womb, killing the mother and baby, documents presented to a US court have revealed.

Annette Morales-Rodriguez, 33, has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide while armed and first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child while armed, following the death of Maritza Ramirez-Cruz and the boy she was set to deliver next week.

Morales-Rodriguez faces life in prison if convicted.

She made a brief court appearance in Milwaukee yesterday, standing silent as bail was set at $1m (£640,000).

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“I don’t know what she had in her mind,” said Maria Garcia, 44, who lives next to Morales-Rodriguez and described her as her best friend.

According to the documents, Morales-Rodriguez told detectives that her boyfriend wanted a son but she could not get pregnant. She told him she was pregnant anyway, but started to grow desperate as what would be her due date approached.

She told investigators she planned for two weeks to find a pregnant woman, take the baby and make it hers, the papers said..

Morales-Rodriguez drove around last Wednesday searching for a pregnant woman, but found none, authorities said. On Thursday she drove around a non-profit organisation that provides healthcare for Hispanics and found Ms Ramirez-Cruz.

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The 23-year-old had moved from Puerto Rico to join her childhood sweetheart, Christian Mercado, said Mr Mercado’s father, Carlos. They already had three children together, and Ms Ramirez-Cruz was carrying their fourth.

Morales-Rodriguez told detectives she thought about telling her boyfriend the truth, but decided against it and offered Ms Ramirez-Cruz a ride.

Telling Ms Ramirez-Cruz she needed to change her shoes, she drove them to her house. Ms Ramirez-Cruz went inside to use the bathroom. When she emerged, Morales-Rodriguez was waiting for her with a baseball bat.

The documents say Morales-Rodriguez began to hit Ms Ramirez-Cruz and choked her until she passed out. Morales-Rodriguez then taped Ms Ramirez-Cruz’s feet and hands and taped over her mouth and nose. She cut her open with a knife. She told detectives she was trying to imitate a procedure she had seen on television.

Morales-Rodriguez is due back in court next Wednesday.

Similar cases of women taking an unborn child from a mother’s womb were reported in Massachusetts and Oregon in 2009, in Pennsylvania in 2007, in Illinois in 2006 and Missouri in 2004.