Woman Murders Young Mother, Steals Newborn, After Posing As Child Protective Services Worker

The body of a young mother was found on Friday wrapped in plastic and stuffed in a storage bin 180 miles from her Anderson, Indiana, home. The mother, Samantha Fleming, and her 3-week-old infant named Serenity, were reported missing after they left on April 5 with a woman claiming to be from Indiana Child Protective Services. The fake CPS worker then took Samantha to her home where she murdered her and kidnapped the newborn.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Fleming left with a woman claiming to be from the Indiana Child Protective Services after the fake CPS worker told her she had a hearing at Lake Superior Court. Relatives say that after the woman left for the hearing with her infant, she stopped responding to calls. Fleming’s boyfriend reported the woman and child missing and police began an investigation.

The police were led to the home in Gary, Indiana, which was 180-miles away after Fleming’s cellphone pinged on a nearby tower. Police also found Fleming’s wallet at an apartment near the home containing the murdered mother’s body. At the same time, a 36-year-old woman in the area was setting up a nursery for her new baby girl, which she told neighbors she had given birth to previously, but had been in the hospital for jaundice.

The suspected murderer had become close to a neighbor after she told her she was pregnant with twins. The suspect even attended the neighbor’s home birth. However, the neighbor says that the woman confided in her that around Easter she had given birth but one of the babies had died. She then claimed that the newborn was in the hospital suffering from jaundice. The woman says that shortly after she saw the woman pushing a baby that she thought was “lighter-skinned” than what she would have expected. She says the woman began acting strangely and was wearing sunglasses and had a bandage on her arm.

The neighbor reports that she was then asked to watch the suspect’s house as she planned to go away for a while. She says no one was at the house for a few weeks but that the suspect texted her regularly. The Daily Mail notes that when police found the dead body and infant baby, she was in the care of the suspect’s sister. The suspect had asked the sister to care for the baby she had passed off as her own while she left temporarily. When the sister arrived at the suspect’s home to gather more baby supplies, the friend texted the suspect to let her know someone was at the house. However, a few moments later, police arrived and discovered the body and took the baby into custody. At this point, the neighbor texted her “friend” to let her know what was going on. She says the texts have since stopped and she doesn’t know what is going on.

After finding the body and baby, police located the suspect at a hospital in Texas but have not yet made an arrest. Police say they are currently questioning the woman and she is a “person of interest.”

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