An infant stashed beneath a bathroom sink in an Ocean City apartment was stillborn, corroborating the story of its mother, who told police the baby boy was already dead when she delivered him Thursday, according to a preliminary report from the state?s medical examiner.
ButChristy Freeman, 37, also repeatedly denied ever being pregnant before telling authorities she gave birth to a deceased baby without hands or feet and subsequently flushed the baby down the toilet.
She was charged with that baby?s murder and denied bail Monday, but has not been charged in the deaths of three other infants found in her apartment and recreational vehicle.
Freeman, a cab-company owner, told Worcester County District Judge Daniel Mumford she wants to “clear my name in this case.”
“If you offer me a bond, I’m not going to leave. … I’m going to be here,” Freeman said. “I’m going to help clear this situation up.”
Police said a preliminary report indicates the infant found wrapped in a bloody towel under Freeman’s bathroom sink ? with all “basic structures of a human,” according to charging documents ? was stillborn at 26 weeks. The state?s medical examiner said autopsy results are pending.
Freeman?s boyfriend, Raymond Godman Jr., found her passed out in the bathroom of their second-floor apartment on the 200 block of Sunset Avenue at 1 a.m. Thursday, according to court documents. Emergency medical technicians found her on the sofa with a garbage bag and towel under her to control heavy vaginal bleeding.
Freeman denied being pregnant several times at the hospital, where physicians found what they estimated to be a 30- to 36-week-old placenta and an “irregular cut” umbilical cord inside her womb.
After finding the baby in the bathroom, police found a garbage bag containing three smaller plastic bags in a trunk in Freeman?s room. Two of the bags contained infant bones and the other the remains of a placenta, said Mallory Knapp, spokeswoman for Joel Todd, Worcester County state?s attorney.
Another bag with infant remains was found in a recreational vehicle outside, she said. The FBI?s Evidence Response Team is assisting resort police excavating Freeman?s yard, Knapp said.
Freeman was charged with first- and second-degree murder, along with manslaughter, under a 2005 law that bans the killing of a fetus that can live outside the womb. Maryland Chief Medical Examiner David Fowler has said fetuses are “viable” at seven months.
The owner of Classic Taxi, Freeman is a frequent voice for the resort?s cab industry who criticized proposed fare limits last year and regularly attends city meetings. Her four other children are safe with Godman, who is not under investigation, police said.
“I hope everyone takes the four kids into consideration,” said a Classic Taxi employee who asked to be identified only as Bob.
Freeman’s lawyer, Frank Benvenuto, did not return a phone call. Mumford set a preliminary hearing Aug. 27.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
