Mom facing charges after infant found at Michigan recycling plant
A newborn baby that was found on a conveyor belt of a Michigan recycling plant last January died of hypothermia, medical examiners have determined.
According to the Washington Post, Cyndee Johnson, an employee at the recycling plant, spotted the infant bundled in a black T-shirt as he moved toward her on the conveyer belt.
By the time Johnson and her co-workers found the infant among the debris of newspapers, bottles and cardboard, he was already lifeless. A medical examiner later determined he had died of hypothermia.
After initially having difficulty confirming the infant’s identity, authorities received tips from friends and family of a recently pregnant 25-year-old, Angela Alexie.
According to prosecutors, Alexie, a mother of three children in foster care, gave birth to the unnamed baby — cutting the umbilical cord with her teeth — in an unheated garage where she would leave him for several days to die.
Alexie claims she checked on the baby periodically and attempted to breastfeed him. She says she was too injured to surrender him to the fire department under Michigan’s safe haven law.
Prosecutors said that she reportedly sent her friends selfies of her “weight loss” shortly after delivering the baby.
Weeks later, she allegedly placed the newborn in a garbage bag outside. Authorities say it remains unclear how exactly the baby ended up at the recycling plant.
Alexie is charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse.
Contact Caitlin Lilly at clilly@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @caitielilly_