A former sorority girl from Ohio, Emile Weaver, has been found guilty for killing her new-born baby and then throwing the body in the sorority house garbage bin.
She was also found guilty of tampering with evidence as well as the abuse of a corpse.
The judge ruled that a life sentence was appropriate for these crimes.
According to Prosecutors, on April 22, 2015, Weaver gave birth in a bathroom at the Delta Gamma Theta sorority at Muskingum University and then murdered the baby.
Asphyxiation was deemed the actual cause of death after Weaver put the baby in a plastic trash bag which she left outside the sorority house.
Although some of her sorority sisters had suspicions, Weaver apparently hid her pregnancy for 9 months and on numerous occasions attempted to kill the baby. During her pregnancy, she drank alcohol, smoked marijuana, played sports and took labor-inducing pills.
After killing the baby, she sent a text to the man who she thought was the father of the baby, stating
“No more baby, taken care of.”
She told him that she went through 6 hours of labour and that the baby didn’t survive due to “placenta problems”. When in actual fact, she got a knife from the sorority’s kitchen to cut the umbilical cord, then put the baby and the placenta inside a trash bag and disposed of it – or so she thought.
A paternity test later confirmed that he was not the father of the baby.
On the night of the murder, a trail of blood was left on and around the toilet which the sorority house manager thought was from a girl who had her periods. She sent a text to the sorority sisters asking the responsible person to clean it up – she even described the state of the toilet as a murder scene. Little did she know.
When the text came, a few of the sorority girls had a hunch and went to look in the dumpster – where they found the trash bag. They tore a hole in it and then saw a little foot.
The girls reported their findings to the police and Weaver was arrested days later.
In the trial, Weaver claimed that she was in denial about her pregnancy. She said that she believed the baby was already dead after the birth and she then discarded the body.
The judge was not convinced that she showed any remorse for the infanticide and sentenced her to life imprisonment, without the chance of parole.
Weaver intends to appeal the sentence.