Missing pregnant woman found dead may have had her unborn baby cut out
A missing pregnant woman who was found dead without her baby after a “cruel and vicious act of depravity” may have had it cut out before she was killed, police said.
Savanna Greywind was discoveredhanging from a log in North Dakota's Red River by kayakers.The nursing assistant's body was wrapped in plastic.
It followed an eight day search for the 22-year-old, who disappeared afer she leftthe home she shared with her parents in Fargo, North Dakota to visit a neighbour and work on a sewing project.
Five days after she went missing, a two-day-old baby girl was found in her neighbour's flat and a DNA test concluded it was Ms Greywind’s daughter.
Investigators suspect the labour may have been induced, or that the infant was removed from the mother’s womb while she was eight-months’ pregnant.
Her neighbours — Brooke Crews, 38, and William Hoehn, 32 — were later taken into custody and charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
It followed a huge three-day search by up to 400 people for Ms Greywind, which included groups of native Americans bussed into the area from their settlement near the border with Canada.
Investigators later found suspicious material at a nearby farm near the discovery and are working on the theory that Ms Greywind was killed there.
Clay County Sheriff Bill Bergquist said the farm where the woman’s body was found has an abandoned home with barns, but had not had an official address for some time.
“The team that was searching, when they went to that house, they found some things that were very, very suspicious,” he said. “That’s what brought us here.”
The discovery of the pregnant nursing assistant without her baby, triggered rumours locally in Moorhead that she may have been a victim of so-called "womb raiders".
"Nothing surprises me anymore," one resident, Bill Larson, told The StarTribune.
Fargo Police Chief David Todd gave an update on his force’s investigation in an announcement on Facebook. He called the death, a “cruel and vicious act of depravity”.
He wrote: “Brooke Crews was home during the execution of the search warrant. A newborn infant was also present in the apartment. The infant was alive and was immediately taken to a medical facility. Our investigation thus far indicates the possibility that this is Savanna Greywind’s child.”
The baby was found in good health and is now at a hospital under the custody of social services.
Forensics officials who performed an autopsy on Ms Greywind's remains are expected to release a preliminary report later today.
