Autopsy on fetus in bag inconclusive

NEW YORK – An autopsy of a fetus found in a teenage girl’s shopping bag at a New York City lingerie store was inconclusive, and more tests will be needed to determine how the fetus died, the city medical examiner’s office said.

Preliminary reports from detectives suggest the fetus was born alive and possibly had been asphyxiated, but chief New York Police Department spokesman John McCarthy said the case was still being investigated and that police were awaiting the medical examiners’ determination of the cause of death.

The case began Thursday when a security guard stopped two 17-year-old girls to examine their bags at a Victoria’s Secret store in midtown Manhattan. The guard found the dead fetus in one of the bags.

The girl who had been carrying the bag containing the fetus told detectives she had delivered a day earlier and didn’t know what to do, authorities said.

Both girls were arrested on shoplifting charges. They pleaded not guilty Saturday to petit larceny and possession of stolen property.