17 Year Old Gives Birth On Laundry Room Floor - Stabs Newborn 135 Times

[matcom]

<snip>

A 17-year-old Oakdale girl told police she gave birth on the laundry room floor early Monday, then panicked and stabbed the baby girl after seeing her move a finger.
The baby, found by investigators in a bloody garbage bag outside the teen's home, had 135 stab wounds, many in her tiny chest. The Ramsey County medical examiner's office said the baby was born alive and bled to death.

Nicole M. Beecroft was charged with first-degree premeditated murder Thursday in Washington County District Court.

County Attorney Douglas Johnson noted that state law allows mothers to leave infants at any hospital within 72 hours of birth with no legal consequences. "She could have walked away and the baby would have been adopted by a family that wanted it," he said. "Instead she destroys two lives: her own and the baby's."We don't know what motivated her," Johnson said.

It's unclear how long Beecroft had known she was pregnant. Her mother told police she did not know about her daughter's pregnancy. Friends and co-workers said Thursday that they had no clue.

According to the criminal complaint, Beecroft initially told police that she went to the bathroom about 3 a.m. Monday and "something didn't feel right." So she spread a towel on the laundry room floor, lay down and gave birth.

She originally told police that the baby was stillborn and that she lay with it for 10 to 20 minutes. Then she threw the body in a trash can outside their home in the 1700 block of Hinton Trail N., she said.

But after investigators found the baby, bloody towels and a knife in a trash can early Wednesday, they confronted the teenager again. This time, she told them she saw the baby move her finger and she panicked and stabbed her.

Johnson said the girl told investigators that she thought the trash hauler had taken away the bag with the body.

http://www.startribune.com/467/story/1117417.html

[Maddy McCall]

1. Good lord.

Terrible.

[formerrepuke]

2. Aaaaargh. the "walk-away" law should be better known to the public.

[skygazer]

3. "We don't know what motivated her,"

Are people really that stupid? Fear, you moran - plain fear.

Doesn't make it right but I can guess how frightened a 17 year old kid would be. Some - maybe most- would react differently but that doesn't change the fact that this kid was no doubt freaking out.

I was with my 15 year old daughter when she gave birth. She knew she could count on me to be supportive so she came to me early and we got her through the pregnancy, I took her to the doctor's, coached her in what to expect. But anyone who's given birth knows it's no easy ride for a grown woman - for a kid all alone, scared, in a fucking laundry room?

Awful, horrible thing to happen but I can see how it would happen. As for what should happen now? A lot depends on circumstances surrounding it. But while I feel terribly sad for that poor innocent baby, I have a lot of compassion for the other child involved, too.

[LostinVA]

4. Very, very good post

[Schema Thing]

11. "Some - maybe most- would react differently"

Thanks for lightening up a very very dark event.


Made my week!

[skygazer]

15. Yeah, poorly worded, I grant you

Sometimes I just write as I think and it comes out sort of stream of consciousness. Glad to entertain.

[Schema Thing]

16. It just caught my funny bone...

since this is such a uniquely disgusting act.

I'm sure this girl has real mental problems, so if I have any sympathy for her (and I very well might, if I hear the facts of her case), it would be for that reason.

[begin_within]

5. So she just happens to carry a knife around with her?

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Maybe. Some people live in fear.

I don't know whether her community is safe or tough but the article relates this story from the neighbor:

Thirteen years ago, Ricker said, she and her husband, Walter, who has since died, were awakened on a summer's morning by police at the door. Nicole Beecroft's father was armed with a shotgun and threatening to kill his family, officers told the Rickers. Police were evacuating the neighborhood. Her father disappeared after that and the couple divorced, Ricker said.

If my crazy father threatened to kill me when I was a little kid (and it's unlikely that the shotgun incident was the only violence from him) I'd be more fearful than the average kid.

That doesn't excuse her for committing murder, particularly if the court proves it was premeditation as charged. Sad case all around.

[begin_within]

10. The fact that she laid there for 10 to 20 minutes and thought about it before doing it,

to me, that's pretty damning evidence.

[dropkickpa]

12. Ummm

After pushing bowling ball head (Dropkid) out, it was at least 30 minutes to an hour before I was thinking clearly in any way, and I was in a nice hospital room surrounded by doctors and nurses and family and I had an epidural!!

10 to 20 minutes is nothing.

[begin_within]

18. Oh you poor thing... Wait! You moved! You're supposed to be dead! Hold on. (stab stab stab) There.

[skygazer]

14. That's not exactly what the article said

That was her first story - that the baby was born stillborn and she laid with it for 10 or 20 minutes before putting it in the garbage.

Then they found the baby who'd been obviously stabbed and that's when she admitted that she saw it move and stabbed it.

Whatever the absolute truth is, it's not going to be in a news story - it will have to be up to the court to figure out just what went on.

[begin_within]

17. Oh you poor thing... Wait! You moved! You're supposed to be dead! Hold on. (stab stab stab) There.

[skygazer]

19. ...

:eyes:

[Gormy Cuss]

20. You have no experience with how panic changes behavior, I take it.

I've watched people overkill spiders, snakes, and mice out of phobia. It's not the mark of clear thinking to whack a mouse with a two by four for 5 solid minutes, but to someone in a full blown panic it makes perfect sense.

[Schema Thing]

21. "It's not a mark of clear thinking...

...to whack a mouse with a two by four for 5 solid minutes..."


lol, this thread is producing some great material.

[Pale Blue Dot]

6. Hey! This isn't funny at all!

I'm beginning to question your journalistic standards, Matcom.

[matcom]

7. i don't make the news

i report the good, bad & ugly

[PVnRT]

8. Ummm...ok....wha?

Well, at least she didn't terminate the pregnancy early. The anti-choicers will be content.

[xchrom]

13. sad -- very very sad.

[Bassic]

22. Oh my god

How can anyone do that to their own child? :cry:

[raptor_rider]

23. At 17, she knew what she was doing.

I have had two kids and one more on the way. Yes, it is a tough thing to go through delivering a baby. Pain filled and intense. Myself, at 17 found out I was pregnant. I confided with my parents. They stood by me with whatever choice I made. Whether to go through and keep the baby, put it up for adoption, or abortion.
My parents were both brought up Catholic and left our religion choice to ourselves. Both are conservative and republican. They stood by my choice of abortion, although being who they are. They even waited in the waiting room while I had the procedure, and paid for it to be done.
This girl stated in her myspace page that her mother was her hero, she should have believed that she could talk to her mother about anything. Granted they went through hell with her father from what I read in the news story, however, I was not in a better space with my ex boyfriend that was the father of the baby that I choose to abort. He was abusive and stalked me. I had a restraining order against him that he broke quite a few times. He never knew that I was pregnant, and wanted to keep it that way.
To carry a baby for 9 months, feel it move constantly for the last trimester, she knew that the baby was alive. This was planned.
I know that I will be flamed for this, however, after being in a frightening situation myself at her age, there are other options. Mine took place in 1993, where we did not have all of the sex ed in school like they do today. I knew of my options then.
Just a sad, sad situation all around. Many lives are ruined for her choices. Her own, her mother's, her boyfriend of 16 months, and last but not least, the baby who could of survived, if she choose for it to be.