Texas woman arrested after newborn found dead outside wrapped in a towel
03/21/2023 2:42 pm PDT
TYLER, Texas (TCD) -- A 23-year-old mother is in custody after allegedly giving birth on a toilet, placing her newborn in a mop bucket outside, and falling asleep.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by KYTX-TV, on Wednesday, March 15, Smith County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a report of a deceased newborn on the 18000 block of US Highway 69 North, where they found the deceased infant wrapped in a towel next to a mop bucket.
KPVI-TV reports that the infant’s mother, Jazzlyn Nukenya Cooper-Holmes, told investigators she gave birth on March 12 standing over a toilet "so that the baby would go into the toilet."
The infant reportedly went into the toilet head-first, and she only glanced at it once before wrapping the infant in a towel and placing it into a mop bucket. Cooper-Holmes allegedly went outside and put the baby on the ground.
Afterward, Cooper-Holmes reportedly cleaned up the bathroom, and she went outside to check on the infant before going back to her room to sleep. After falling asleep, she never returned outside to check on her newborn, KYTX reports.
An affidavit obtained by KPVI alleged that Cooper-Holmes told the suspected father via Snapchat, "I was pregnant. ... That can’t happen again. I can’t be pregnant."
Cooper-Holmes was arrested and booked into the Smith County Jail for abuse of a corpse without legal authority, and she remains held on $1 million bond.
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