Prosecutors Thursday dropped murder charges against the Ocean City woman in connection with a stillborn fetus she delivered last week, instead charging her with the homicide of an infant child born to her in 2003.
Christy Freeman, 37, has been held in a Worcester County jail for allegedly causing her 26-baby to be stillborn, then stashing its corpse beneath a bathroom vanity last Thursday, but has notbeen charged in connection with the deaths of three other fetuses found wrapped in plastic in her bedroom and Winnebago until now. Experts had 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. His office declined to elaborate.
“All those questions will be answered and presented when it goes to court,” said Mallory Knapp, a spokeswoman for Todd. “A lot of it we don?t know yet.”
Police on Thursday subpoenaed Freeman?s medical records, including Freeman?s 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 three older sets of fetal remains around Freeman?s home.
Police said a report from the state?s medical examiner on those remains ? which they hoped to indicate how old the fetuses were and when they died ? were not expected until next week.
Investigators finished a three-day search of Freeman?s property Wednesday, uncovering no more human remains but carting out several bags of potential evidence. Police said Freeman?s longtime boyfriend, Raymond W. Godman Jr., and four children were free to return to the home, but so far, they have not. Police planned regular patrols by the house to prevent possible vandalism or retaliation.
Todd said Monday he believes Freeman caused the fetus to be stillborn, but has not spoken to the press since. He said in the statement that legal and ethical guidelines prevent him from being “personally unavailableto the news media to answer questions directly.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
