No, seriously, WTF is wrong with people?!

[silverthorne]

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05/18/2007 07:16:48 EST

Baby Found in Freezer; Pa. Woman Charged

By JOE MANDAK
Associated Press Writer

PITTSBURGH - A woman was charged with abuse of a corpse after police found the remains of a baby in her freezer.

Police charged Christine Hutchinson, 22, of Pittsburgh, after interviewing her Thursday evening, several hours after the remains were found in her apartment.

Officers got a tip from someone who knew Hutchinson that there was "possibly a baby that was dead and was in a freezer in an apartment in Bloomfield," a working-class neighborhood several miles east of downtown, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said.

Detectives found what initially appeared to be a late-term fetus in a brown bag in the freezer, police said, though it wasn't immediately clear whether the remains resulted from a miscarriage, late-term abortion or a death shortly after birth.

But later, Lt. Daniel Herrmann said the abuse of a corpse charge applies only to human beings. Under the law, he said, a fetus is not considered a human being.
An autopsy was scheduled for Friday. Police said that they did not believe the death was recent but gave no further details.

Police also questioned the woman's ex-boyfriend but said they do not believe he was the father. He was not charged.

Hutchinson was in custody awaiting arraignment late Thursday. A criminal complaint and police affidavit were not immediately released.

It was not immediately known whether Hutchinson had an attorney.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Comments

[molotovcoqtiz.livejournal.com]

Makes you wonder if she lost the child late term and couldn't bring herself to part with the baby she'd lost.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

If that's the case, she needs help, and quickly. Mourning is one thing--keeping the body in the freezer as a 'mourning trophy' is another.

Unfortunately though, I'm more inclined to think there was more of a 'I don't want folks to find out' going on. Whether or not it was out of shame of losing the baby, or because of an intentional death...yeah. It still boils down to her wanting to hide something.

[molotovcoqtiz.livejournal.com]

Yes, she definitely needs help. But I'm not so sure about the hiding thing. A freezer is not a secure place if you are ANYWHERE in your right mind and obviously wasn't as the body was found and the discovery turned in.

No, she may not have wanted people to find out but I'm disinclined to buy abortion, as if you're willing to abort it, the likelihood of keeping it is slim to none and as they are terming it a fetus and not a baby, seems murder is out the window. That leaves, pretty much, some form of mourning or grief.

Fucked up as it is, and I do not deny that in the least, sounds like a woman with post partum strong enough to make her cling to a dead child for fear of losing it.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Guess we'll see.

I get the mourning and not letting go part, but after living with a certain someone who kept her dead pet snake in her pocket (didn't show it to folks, but definitely told people about her loss) for three days before I could convince her it was time to bury the poor thing, I'm...yeah.

It still boils down to she's not in her right mind, which still leads back to 'wtf is wrong with this person?'. Which in best case scenario, is mouring--worst case, death by negligence and not wanting to get caught at it. Which is entirely too often the case these days.

Also, this conversation is depending on her actually being the biological mother...which actually isn't mentioned in the article (and usually, realtionship is mentioned when you've got something like this going on). So it might not even be hers.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Also, to address some of your other points...

I will point to people such as Dahmer, who kpet their trophys nearby, in freezers or other places. Yes, they were insane, but they were also extremely smart people--and all of them were sure that where-ever they'd kept their stuff was indeed secure where it was (and were right in many cases--in several situations, the trophys were found after the arrest, and the police could get in and search and dig).

Or, for a less 'crazy' option...may I point out something every day people assume is 'all right' and wouldn't think twice abou they assume people just wouldn't go looking--which is having guests that check out the cabinets in your bathroom.

Even if it's just for, say, more toilet paper, they may get into thing and see stuff the owner of the house may not have intended for them to see, and that the owner likewise would assume never got seen, because, hey, why would folks be rummaging in the cabinets in the first place? Even 'sane', the woman could have easily assume no one would find it, because, hey, who else gets into her freezer besides her?

Again, that's basing things on assumption--such as she lives alone and/or is the only one in the household who bothers to get into the freezer for anything. Or even assumes that if there's a closed package in there, that everyone else knows to stay out of it.

I dunno--these are just all possibilities of what's really going on, which we probably won't know for sure as an audience.

But any way you put it, having a dead fetus in the freezer is just wrong, no matter how it got there. Unless you're a lab tech or a coroner.

[snapples-apples.livejournal.com]

The term 'mourning trophy' is a rather extreme, as is comparing this woman to Dahmer. We don't yet know what her circumstances were.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Hmn, true. Poor choice of words.

Still...I dunno. Guess this is where personal opinion and upbringing is clashing with a more moderate look to the situation, and I can cop to that. Personally, it would be nice to find out this was some sort of severe post-abortion/miscarriage reaction, as opposed to any other number of possibilities.

But again...

It's all sorts of squicks for me, from knowing we're no longer living in a primitive culture where holding onto a body for very long (even viewing reasons tend to be much shorter in length these days--a few days as opposed to a week or more), to knowing that it's both illegal and a biohazard to store a corpse like that.

Other than insanity or hiding, there's really no reason to hold onto a corpse like that. Especially in the United States...and in a city. And again, that's where I go 'WTF?'

[snapples-apples.livejournal.com]

I understand it's squicky, but keep in mind that you probably have a better education and understanding to start with than she does, and are looking in from the outside.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

I am looking in from the outside, that is true.

...the education part? Not so sure about. PA and NJ both have (or had, anyway) really solid public education systems when it came to health matters--including starting on what sex is, what to do or not do, etc around the age of 10 or so (or that's when my class had it, anyway). Unless legislation has changed since then (entirely possible), or she went to a private school that excluded the info for religious or other reasons, she had the education if she went to school.

[snapples-apples.livejournal.com]

I did a quick google search 'cause...yeah that's a horrible story. The mother in question was apparently only 22 years old, and they don't know how long the baby was in there. Sadly, while unusual, it's not all that uncommon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/4071050.stm
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/24/1064083062639.html?from=storyrhs
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/2006/10/25/2125083-sun.html

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. That's the other reason I'm squicked. It happens far too often these days.

I was not in her situation (or any of theirs), but I did get pregnant when I was 22 as well. It ended with everyone, from the guy I'd had sex with, to both my parents, giving me no option but abortion--something I, under no circumstances, wanted to do.

Unfortunately, due to a lot of circumstances (which I'm not going to go into, but included financial and lcck-of-support-from-anyone reasons), I wound up getting one third-fourth month in, courtesy of my parents. So yeah, I understand the not wanting to let go part--god knows I screamed in protest for most of the procedure even though I was on valium and not feeling any pain. It's the 'solution' to the situation that gets me.