Mom Charged in Newborn’s Homicide

Details

Category: Crime

Published on Thursday, 29 August 2013 08:45

Written by Janet Walker

Amanda Catherine Hein, 26, recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy in the bathroom of a local Bethlehem, Pennsylvania sports bar and promptly smothered him to death and stuffed his remains in the toilet tank.

According to reports, the child was delivered on Aug. 18, after about 40minutes of labor. Hein went to the ladies room during an outing with three male friends who were watching a pay-per-view wrestling match at Starter’s Pub, in Bethlehem, and delivered the child.

The men repeatedly sent text messages to her during the labor, asking if she was okay. She did not respond. From all accounts, after the baby was born, she returned to the booth covered in blood, which she asked her friends to ignore. Apparently they did. She then stepped out to have a cigarette.

Northampton County Coroner performed the autopsy and found the baby, a son, was born alive almost full-term at 33-36 weeks.

The newborn was not discovered for a couple of days as the janitorial service workers were attempting to flush the toilet. They removed the tank lid to fix the problem and made the horrific discovery.

Starter’s Pub owner, David Rank said they knew right away who the mother was as they also remembered cleaning up a large amount of blood in the booth where Hein was sitting.

The Bethlehem, Pennsylvania female is being held without bond and can face the death penalty if convicted. The intentional murder of a child under the age of 12 demands is a Homicide punishable b the death penalty.

Pennsylvania is one of 48 states who have a Safe Haven Law which allows parents to turn over their newborn to hospitals without the fear of criminal prosecution.