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May 8, 2008 5:16 am US/Mountain
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Police: Woman Left Newborn To Die In Closet
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) ―
An Alaska woman stowed her newborn boy in a tote bag and left him to die in the closet of her parent's Grand Junction house after giving birth to the child, police said in her arrest affidavit.
Police arrested 22-year-old Morgan Hite in Wasilla, Alaska on investigation of first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. Robert Kurtzman, a forensic pathologist, said the baby which was found dead more than two months after his birth had been born alive.
Hite was being held without bond after her arrest Tuesday, and was to be extradited to Colorado.
Hite gave birth to the boy in the bathtub of one of her parent's neighbors in Grand Junction while she was visiting on Feb. 25, according to her arrest affidavit. Hite's parent's said it appeared she was pregnant and she told them she gave birth to a boy a week earlier in Alaska but placed him up for adoption.
Police said Hite wrapped the child in a plastic garbage bag after his birth and took him to her parent's house, placing him in a closet. After the birth, Hite and her 4-year-old daughter stayed at her parent's house for more than a month, police said.
The baby was found dead April 29. Police said the decaying baby was still and the bag but had been moved outside the house because of the smell.
Hite told authorities in Alaska she didn't want to put the baby in the trash or throw him away but that "everything started snowballing and she felt like she couldn't turn back."
She said she didn't have the money to raise another child and that she had sought an abortion from the Women's Health Clinic in Anchorage. Hite said the clinic told her they couldn't perform an abortion because she was almost four months pregnant.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)