Schoolgirl, 16, who is accused of throwing her baby girl out of a window moments after giving birth asked for a ride and a 'huge favor' on Facebook just 30 minutes before paramedics arrived and found infant dead
A 16-year-old girl accused of throwing her newborn child out of the window asked for help on Facebook just before authorities arrived.
Antonia Lopez, of Omaha, Nebraska, is being charged as an adult in the death of her daughter.
Authorities believe she went into labor on Friday, gave birth in her bedroom and threw her baby girl from the second floor of her apartment building.
Lopez then told her mother what had happened, according to authorities. Lopez's mother found the baby in the grass, called 911 and gave the newborn CPR until paramedics arrived, police said.
A 16-year-old girl who is accused of casting her newborn out of her Omaha apartment’s second-story window on Friday is to be charged as an adult with felony child abuse resulting in death.
Police on Saturday booked Antonia Lopez into the Douglas County Youth Center, a juvenile detention facility. The charge, treating her as an adult, is expected to be filed this week, authorities said Saturday.
The gender of the infant, the cause of the baby’s death and the length of time the teen was pregnant were not made public, though law enforcement officials offered some clarity Saturday on the infant’s medical status when born prematurely in Lopez’s bedroom.
“The child wasn’t a stillborn,” Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said. “To be booked on that count, the child would have had to have been born alive.”
Fire Department paramedics indicated that the newborn was dead by the time they transported the baby to nearby Creighton University Medical Center. There, the baby was formally pronounced dead.
Lopez went into labor before dawn Friday, although it is not clear exactly when the baby was born. At 3:40 a.m. Friday, about 30 minutes before police were called, Lopez posted on Facebook, “Who can do me a huge favor and has a car?” Three crying emoji faces followed the request.
At some point, police said, she discarded her newborn.
Police said Lopez then told her mother what she had done, though the precise amount of time that elapsed between those actions was not disclosed.
Lopez’s mother found the infant in the grass outside their Kellom Knolls apartment building at 2567 Izard Court, police said. She called 911 and performed CPR on the baby until paramedics and police arrived.
Lopez was taken to Creighton for a medical evaluation. She was released Saturday and transferred to the juvenile facility.
Police said Friday that autopsy results on the infant are not expected for several days.
The death will be counted among the city’s homicides, according to Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines that call for child abuse resulting in death cases to be classified that way. The infant is the 19th criminal killing victim in Omaha in 2016. There were 36 homicides at this time last year.
A complete picture of Lopez’s life was elusive Saturday. Her Facebook page identifies her as a Central High student; an Omaha Public Schools spokeswoman did not respond to a request for confirmation. Lopez’s relatives could not be reached.
A year ago Lopez and another teen were accused of shoplifting cellphone cases from an Omaha Walmart store and concealing them in a pink purse. When confronted, both girls refused to give information to authorities, including their real names.
Their obstinance continued at the youth center until a cellphone began to ring from a purse. A staff member answered, and the caller, who was the mother of one of the girls, identified both teens.
Lopez was sentenced to at least six months of probation on charges of theft by unlawful taking and false information. She has a juvenile review hearing for that case scheduled for Dec. 15.
