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Police: Virginia Mom Tried To Suffocate Newborn In Plastic Bin

By Chelsea Hoffman
Published on: 08:49 PST, Jan 11, 2017

A young Virginia mom has been arrested after authorities in Roanoke say that she tried to kill her own newborn baby. WSLS News reports that the mother is a juvenile, so her name has not been released to the public.

Roanoke police responded to a residence on suspicion that a baby had been birthed by a juvenile. According to reports, the teen girl in the home denied giving birth to a newborn in the residence. However, her story began to crumble when officers noted the sound of a baby crying, which was coming from somewhere in the home. This is where the case takes a horrifying turn.

Police say that the newborn infant was located in a sealed plastic container in a room in the home. Fortunately, the baby was alive, though no thanks to the alleged efforts of the Virginia mom who denied even giving birth.

This is far from the only time a young mother has made headlines for similar behavior. In fact, some cases have ended in absolute tragedy. Late last year, a 16-year-old girl was arrested on accusations that she killed her newborn baby. The Omaha World-Herald reports that Antonio Lopez allegedly threw the newborn infant out of a second-story window, which ended in the child’s death.

In 2013, a teenage girl was caught with the dead body of a newborn baby in a shopping bag. The horrifying discovery was made when the girl was allegedly trying to shoplift from a Victoria’s Secret store. The New York Daily News reports that text messages from the teen mom’s phone indicated that she callously planned the newborn’s murder.

In 2015, a 17-year-old North Carolina mom was arrested after police say she brutally beat her newborn baby to death. The teen mom was charged with murder and felony child abuse in association with the horrifying incident. A sad element in this case is the fact that the teenage mother appeared to be happy about being pregnant and made several social media posts leading up to the birth of her son. In those posts, she gushed about wanting to be a good mother who has goals to provide for her child.

Both the juvenile mother and the newborn baby, in this latest case, were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment, and it’s fortunate to report that the baby has survived the ordeal. However, the unnamed mother isn’t out of the woods yet. She has been charged with attempted murder. She has also been charged with aggravated malicious wounding, along with felony child neglect.

The Virginia mom is currently being held in a juvenile detention center, where she is awaiting trial. No updates are being provided at this time regarding who may have taken custody of the newborn in this case.

Do you think this tragic case could have been prevented? Hopefully, more information comes out, so a better look can be given at the circumstances surrounding this heartbreaking tragedy.

[Featured image via SimonVera/Shutterstock]

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