The Ocean City mother accused of killing her newborn babies told investigators she gave birth to twins on a toilet in 2004 and let one of them drown, according to charging documents released late Thursday.
Prosecutors dropped charges against Christy Freeman, 37, in connection with a stillborn baby she delivered last week, instead charging her with the homicide of an infant child born to her in 2004. During that delivery, she told detectives she let the first infant fall into the water and did not remove it until it was dead, according to the documents.
Wrapping the body in a towel, she placed it under the sink and, later, under a snow plow outside.
“I asked if that was because it meant nothing,” Det. Vicki Martin wrote in her report. “Freeman replied, ?yes.?”
Police have subpoenaed Freeman?s medical records, including a 2003 visit to Atlantic General Hospital, the same hospital where she was treated last week for heavy bleeding.
Doctors there discovered Freeman had recently given birth, but had no baby, sparking an investigation that uncovered a dead 26-week-old fetus wrapped in a bloody towel and the remains of three other infants found in a trunk in her living room and a Winnebago.
Freeman has been held in the Worcester County jail in connection with the most recent death. Experts have questioned the application of a 2005 state statute that protects “viable” fetuses but contained protections for mothers who harm their own unborn children.
The new charges are “more applicable to the facts and circumstances of this case” than the charges brought under the statute, Worcester County State?s Attorney Joel Todd said in a statement released late Thursday afternoon.
Todd?s office declined to elaborate. The statement incorrectly said the new charges pertained to a child Freeman delivered in 2003, police spokesman Ofc. Vance Row said.
The charging documents make no mention of the second twin.
“Maybe that is coming somewhere down the road,” Row said. “As of right now, we?re just dealing with twin number one.”
After her arrest, Freeman could not decide whether she wanted to speak to investigators, but consented after 12 hours, according to the charging documents. Freeman told police she was “doing it” for her four living children, “so you will leave them alone.”
Results of autopsies from the state?s medical examiner were not expected until next week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
