Man Arrested In Death Of Newborn Baby Buried After Mother, 13, Gave Birth In Outhouse
A 20-year-old man has been arrested in the death of a newborn who was buried after the 13-year-old mother gave birth in an outhouse.
Daniel Bragg, who admitted to being the baby’s father, was arrested Wednesday for investigation of child rape and manslaughter. He was held in the Island County Jail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for later today, sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Smith said.
“It’s just so horrendous, just to visualize that whole scene,” Sheriff Mike Hawley said Wednesday.
Authorities unearthed the baby boy’s body Wednesday in a wooded area, where he had apparently been buried shortly after his birth late Tuesday night.
The girl’s stepfather said no one knew she was pregnant. The family lives on a primitive homestead here, far from the island’s luxury houses.
The girl was in the outhouse for 30 minutes Tuesday night before she started screaming, police said.
She was rushed to Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon after she began to hemorrhage. The hospital staff alerted police when they realized the girl had just given birth.
“The nurse came out and said there was a placenta but no baby. I thought maybe the baby was in the bathroom,” the stepfather said.
According to Hawley, Bragg said the crying baby dropped into the outhouse pit after it was born and died before anyone could dig it out.
An autopsy was performed Wednesday, but the cause of death will not be released until all the reports are back, a spokesman in the office of Island County Coroner Robert Bishop said this morning.
Investigators said it’s not clear who buried the baby.
Bragg “volunteered to show us where the baby was,” Hawley said. “He led us right to the shallow grave.”
The young mother was still in the hospital today, but her release was expected later in the day, Smith said.
Bragg had lived with the family for about five years. According to earlier reports, he was a son of a woman the girl’s stepfather had been married to previously. The stepfather said the young man was not a blood relative. xxxx