A Mississippi woman is being accused of killing her newborn baby by leaving the child in a toilet, possibly because she did not want more children.
The Starkville Daily News reports Latice Fisher, 32, of Starkville, Mississippi, allegedly told a nurse that she did not want another child and knew about her pregnancy at least a month before she gave birth.
Police said they also found internet searches on Fisher’s phone showing that she allegedly researched abortion drugs.
According to the report, the incident came to light in April 2017 when Charles Fischer Jr., the woman’s husband, called 911 about his wife possibly delivering a baby at their home. When emergency responders arrived, they said they found Latice Fisher sitting on the toilet and her baby in the toilet bowl underneath her.
Here’s more from the report:
The responding EMT noted that the baby appeared to be “greater than 35 weeks in gestation, and that it weighed approximately 6 pounds.”
Paramedics reported the baby showed no signs of life, with blue skin and no heartbeat. All court filings involved with the case do not note the baby’s sex.
Fisher then walked out to the ambulance, was placed on a stretcher, and transported to OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville where she was evaluated and questioned by hospital staff. …
Fisher told hospital officials that earlier on the evening of April 28 at about 7 p.m., she felt she needed to “have a bowel movement,” sat down on the toilet and began cramping and bleeding. She said that continued for three hours while her husband slept downstairs, according to the court filing.
According to the report, the emergency responders treated the baby for cardiac arrest when the team discovered him/her, and the baby later was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Authorities said Fisher purchased abortion drugs online. The report does not indicate if she took the drugs, but authorities appear to be investigating that possibility.
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“The State needs to retain the services … to determine the effects of misoprostol on a late-stage pregnancy, such as Fisher’s, and to provide testimony regarding how the use of the abortion pill during such a late stage pregnancy affected the baby and Fisher’s delivery of the baby in a toilet,” the local district attorney’s office said in a motion to a judge Tuesday.
A medical examiner who conducted the baby’s autopsy said the baby died of asphyxiation, and drowning has not been ruled out as a possible cause.
Authorities said Fisher admitted in an interview that “she didn’t want any more kids, that she couldn’t afford any more kids, and that she simply couldn’t deal with being pregnant again.”
Fisher faces second degree murder charges, according to The Dispatch.
