A chilling discovery
The shocking discovery of an infant’s body in Kenbridge Thursday, led to the arrest of a 17-year-old girl who admitted placing the ‘still-born’ child in a plastic bag before disposing of the body in a brush-filled lot.
The incident began to unfold Wednesday when a man identified as Ralph Washington noticed a plastic bag mixed in among old clothes under some ivy in a yard behind a building he recently purchased along North Broad Street.
The building had been vacant for some time, and the yard had become overgrown with brush.
Reports indicated that Washington left the bag there until the following day, when he returned to the 214 North Broad Street address to begin cleaning up the brush-filled yard. “As he cleaned the yard up Thursday he moved the bag with a pitchfork and smelled a bad odor,” said Kenbridge Police Chief Jan Myers. “He called a friend over to take a look, and both men agreed they needed to contact the police.”
Myers explained the Kenbridge Police Officer Ronnie Hite responded to the scene and opened the bag.
Inside, Hite made the gruesome discovery of the decomposing body of an infant child.
“We closed off the scene and contacted the Virginia State Police Crime Scene Unit,” Myers continued. “The two State Police Technicians helped process the scene, and the baby’s body was removed and transported to nearby S.P Jones Funeral Home. From there, the body was transported to the Richmond Medical Examiner’s Office.”
The Medical Examiner’s Office was scheduled to perform an autopsy Friday, but local authorities have yet to be notified of any results.
Myers explained Friday that authorities could not determine the sex, race or exact age of the infant due to position the body was discovered in, and the extent of decomposition.
Just hours after the investigation began, information led police to a 17-year-old girl from Guatemala who admitted she was the mother of the dead baby.
She told police that on or about April 14 her ‘water broke’ in the morning, but she still went to work that day at a factory in South Hill.
She claimed she worked the entire shift, and gave birth to the baby after returning home that evening. She also said that the baby was dead when delivered.
The girl told police that she put the baby in a plastic bag along with some clothes, and placed the bag in the neighboring backyard among the overgrowth of vegetation. She explained that she and the baby’s father were from Guatemala, and they did not know what to do with the body.
Police charged the girl as a juvenile with the unlawful disposal of a dead body – a Class 1 misdemeanor in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
She is currently being held in the Piedmont Juvenile Detention Center awaiting a court appearance. The juvenile was detained due to flight risk, and so officials could make sure she received a proper medical evaluation, both physical and emotional, and so she could receive treatment if deemed necessary.
Police also noted that additional charges could be filed depending on the results of the autopsy. The K-V Dispatch will publish additional information about the case when it becomes available.
