Newborn found dead on street was thrown out window, PA cops say. Parents now charged
Two people have been arrested in connection to the death of a newborn whose remains were found on a Pennsylvania street in March, according to local media reports.
Emily J. Dickinson, 20, and Joshua C. Wooters, 19, both of McConnellsburg, were arrested June 25 on charges of criminal homicide, concealing the death of a child, and abuse of a corpse, among others, court records show.
Court records identified the couple as the baby’s parents, WGAL reported.
Attorney information was not available for Dickinson or Wooters.
State police found the infant on March 11 lying unresponsive in the street, McClatchy News previously reported. A placenta was also found at the scene.
The Fulton County coroner said the baby appeared to have been born about 24 hours before being found and was in its ninth month of fetal development, WHTM and McClatchy News reported.
The baby was pronounced dead at the scene, and the cause of death was “exsanguination from the umbilical stump,” WHTM reported, citing a criminal complaint.
Dickinson, a certified nursing assistant, told investigators she cut the baby’s umbilical cord but didn’t clamp it to stop the bleeding, according to the outlet.
She said she used a kitchen knife to cut the cord, WGAL reported.
The mother told authorities after the baby died, she threw the child out the window of the apartment where she and Wooters lived because she “wasn’t thinking clearly,” PennLive reported.
Wooters initially denied knowing anything about the incident when questioned by investigators before eventually saying Dickinson threw the baby out of the second-story window, WHP reported.
Dickinson told authorities she didn’t know she was pregnant until she was about 20-30 weeks along and didn’t go to the doctor for financial reasons, the station reported.
According to investigators, Dickinson’s online search history included abortions, home births and birth complications, PennLive reported.
The pair is being held at Bedford County Prison, court records show.
Bail was denied for both Dickinson and Wooters, according to court records.
McConnellsburg is about a 135-mile drive southeast from Pittsburgh.
This story was originally published June 26, 2024 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Newborn found dead on street was thrown out window, PA cops say. Parents now charged."
