Defense To Conduct Autopsy Of Baby Left In Toilet At Starters Pub

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Defense attorneys for a woman accused of killing her newborn baby after secretly giving birth in a bathroom of a Lower Saucon Township pub will conduct an outside autopsy of the body.

Amanda C. Hein, 27, of Allentown was charged last month with homicide after authorities said she delivered a healthy and viable boy in a bathroom stall of Starters Pub, placed him in a plastic bag and left him in the tank of the toilet.

In a letter to prosecutors this week, Northampton County Chief Public Defender Michael Corriere said he has retained a forensic pathologist, Dr. Supriya Kuruvilla, to conduct an autopsy for the defense.

The request wasn’t unexpected, since the viability of the baby — initially called a “fetus” by Lower Saucon police, the same term Corriere used — could be a key argument in Hein’s case.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-starters-pub-baby-found-in-toilet-autopsy-20130911,0,7779054.story#ixzz2egmIhbo0
Follow us: @mcall on Twitter | mcall.lv on Facebook

DA Says Mother Suffocated Newborn Baby Found In Starters Pub Toilet

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 26-year-old Allentown woman kept her pregnancy secret from everyone, authorities now believe.

So secret that when Amanda C. Hein began complaining about back pain while sitting in a booth at Starters Pub in Lower Saucon Township, the three men she was with had no idea she was about to give birth, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said Monday.

But that night of Aug. 18, Hein delivered a son after leaving the table — laboring in a bathroom stall of the popular sports bar on Route 378 while she ignored her friends’ text messages as they worried why she was gone for so long.

Then she took that “alive and viable” boy of 33 to 36 weeks’ gestation and killed him, putting him in a plastic bag and leaving him in the tank of the toilet, Morganelli said in announcing homicide charges for a death he was unable to explain.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-starters-pub-baby-found-in-toilet-homicide-20130826,0,1487535.story#ixzz2dBbqGJEw

Follow us: @mcall on Twitter | mcall.lv on Facebook

DA: Dead Baby, Not Fetus, Discovered In Toilet Tank

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was a dead baby, and not a fetus, that was found in a toilet tank at Starters Pub in Lower Saucon Township last week, District Attorney John Morganelli said in a news release Monday.

“Deceased baby” were the words Morganelli chose as he announced a news conference this afternoon to discuss the status of the criminal investigation into the gruesome discovery Aug. 19 at the popular sports bar on Route 378.

That runs counter to the description offered by Lower Saucon police, who used “fetus” to the media.

The body was found by a cleaning crew in a women’s restroom at Starters, but investigators have disclosed few details about the circumstances.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-starters-pub-baby-found-in-toilet-homicide-20130826,0,1487535.story#ixzz2d5t310KA
Follow us: @mcall on Twitter | mcall.lv on Facebook