University of Tampa student gave birth in bathroom, said baby died soon after, records say
The mother of a baby found dead in a University of Tampa garbage bin told police she gave birth to the baby in a dorm bathroom and that the baby died soon after, court records show.
A search warrant affidavit made public Thursday includes new details about the investigation that began Sunday after the newborn girl was discovered in a garbage bin at McKay Hall, a dormitory on the campus at 401 W. Kennedy Blvd.
A day earlier, on Saturday, campus security called first responders about 3:30 p.m. regarding a 19-year-old woman possibly having a miscarriage, according to the affidavit. Students in McKay Hall said they thought they heard a baby crying in a dorm room.
The call was deemed medical and turned over to EMS, which cleared the call after the woman said blood found in a common bathroom was from her menstruation, the affidavit states.
Just before 7 p.m. Sunday, dispatchers received a call “advising that campus security was on scene with a deceased fetus in a bag.” Students in the dorm reported seeing a fellow student holding a bundled up towel on Saturday, and on Sunday the students gave a trash bag to security that they’d found in a dorm room and thought was suspicious because of the previous day’s events.
A security guard looked in the bag and saw the torso of a baby that was clearly dead, according to the affidavit.
The mother, whom the Tampa Bay Times is not naming in this story because she has not been charged with a crime, told police that she hadn’t had a period in about a year and didn’t know she was pregnant but “may have been in denial,” the affidavit states.
The woman said she started to feel nauseous on Saturday morning and gave birth in the bathroom between two adjoining dorm rooms, according to the affidavit. She said the newborn cried for about five seconds and when the woman put the baby to her chest, the girl stopped crying. She kept the baby to her chest for several minutes and then put the child down on a towel.
The woman told police that when she put her hand to the baby’s chest and did not feel anything, she thought the baby was dead. The woman took a shower, cleaned the infant with water from the shower and wrapped it in a towel. She said the baby showed no signs of life at that point.
The woman said she took the towel-wrapped baby to her room, laid the child on the floor and fell asleep for about an hour, the affidavit states. When she woke up about 11 a.m. Saturday, the baby still showed no signs of life, so she placed the infant in a trash can and went back to sleep.
When paramedics came to her room to check on her wellbeing later in the day and asked if she was pregnant, she said no.
Tampa police have not said if the woman will be criminally charged. Police previously said investigators were working to determine the baby’s cause of death and her “developmental stage.”
A police spokesperson said Thursday that investigators were waiting for information from the medical examiner.
The incident prompted campus officials to send a text at 11:41 p.m. Sunday saying that “there is currently an active TPD investigation in the McKay Hall area” and to “avoid the marked areas.” The alert said there was no danger to the campus community.
On Monday, university officials sent a message addressed to “the University of Tampa community” stating that as more details emerged, “the University community may have a wide variety of emotional responses to this event.”
The message included a list of resources available, such as on-campus counseling, a 24-hour crisis line and the employment assistance program for faculty and staff.
Need help?
Expectant mothers who need resources can find them at The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay by calling 211, the Florida Department of Health at 850-245-4047 or The National Safe Haven Alliance Hotline at 888-510-2229.
Florida’s Safe Haven law allows parents to anonymously surrender an unharmed newborn infant seven days old or younger to any fire station, EMS station or hospital staffed by full-time emergency medical technicians, paramedics or firefighters.
