In brief: Mercyhurst player charged in death
A Mercyhurst College volleyball player was charged Tuesday in Pittsburgh with killing the baby she secretly gave birth to in her campus apartment bathroom.
Teri Rhodes hid the pregnancy from friends and teammates, told a doctor two days before the Aug. 12 birth that she didn’t think she was pregnant and did Internet research on topics including “what can kill a fetus,” Erie police said.
After giving birth, Rhodes, 18, put the newborn in a plastic bag and left it on the floor of a bathtub as she showered, according to the criminal complaint. Among other counts, Rhodes was charged with homicide, abusing a corpse and concealing the death of a child. Her attorney, Philip Friedman, declined to comment.
The sophomore has been living at her parents’ house in Commerce, Mich., near Detroit. She was freed on $25,000 bond in the afternoon.
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