Angel N. Newberry, Twin Falls, Idaho woman identified as individual who placed a dead baby in a Safe Haven Baby Box in Blackfoot last month as police mull what charges 18 year old should face.
Idaho authorities have released the identity of a teen girl who anonymously left a ‘dead baby’ inside a Safe Haven Baby Box at Grove Creek Medical in Blackfoot last month.
Angel N. Newberry, 18, of Twin Falls, was arrested on a felony Bingham County arrest warrant for failing to report a death to law enforcement officials and the coroner. Newberry was transported to Bingham County and booked into jail following her arrest on Thursday.
Medical staff discovered the baby in the box on Oct. 13 shortly after it was placed in it, authorities previously reported.
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‘The Safe Haven Baby Box is intended to safely and anonymously allow custodial parents to surrender a newborn under 30 days old without legal repercussions, provided the child is unharmed. Unfortunately, the placement of a harmed or deceased infant is not protected under this system or Idaho law,’ according to a Blackfoot Police Department news release.
At the time of the baby’s ‘drop-off’, the baby box sent staff an alarm notifying handlers that a baby had been placed in the box, with medical personnel responding immediately to the alarm. Medics removed the infant immediately but found the infant had passed away long before being placed in the baby box. Officials said the placenta was still attached, KTVB reported.
Not immediately clear is why Newberry ‘dropped’ off the baby after it was ‘long’ deceased and how the newborn came to die or whether it was born stillborn.
The police department is releasing limited information at the time as there is the potential for further criminal charges.
The newborn’s death has once again raised fissures as to women’s health and reproductive rights and the the options available for an ‘unwanted’ pregnancy, if any.
Of note, following the overturning of Roe v Wade on June 24, 2022, abortion in Idaho was criminalized by a trigger law which states that person who performs an abortion may face two to five years of imprisonment. Abortion is forbidden from fertilization in Idaho.
