Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993 TAG: 9304240171
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LEIGH ALLEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Charges were filed Friday after blood tests confirmed that Cathy Cochran, 20, was the mother of the baby boy whose body was discovered March 18 by a McDonald's worker outside the restaurant on Plantation Road.
Police said Cochran, in an April 15 interview, admitted giving birth to the child in her dormitory room at the Roanoke Memorial Hospital nursing school.
Police who searched Cochran's dormitory room found a blood-stained mattress cover, towel and paper tissues, according to a search warrant. They also found a book on maternity nursing and one on nutrition.
Dr. William Massello, a medical examiner who performed the autopsy, said he could not determine why the infant was stillborn, but said he found no air in the child's lungs, indicating it never had taken a breath.
"The probability is very high that even if she would have been brought to medical attention, it would have still been born dead," Massello said.
It is illegal in Virginia to dispose of a dead body on public property or on private property without written permission of the landowner. That law was passed in 1992 after the bodies of several stillborn infants were discovered.
In 1991, Pleasant Hill residents called police after dogs dragged the body of a stillborn baby into a front yard. Also in 1991, a Henry County woman disposed of her stillborn baby in a trash can and the decomposing remains of another were found in a Franklin County ditch.
Police say Cochran will be delivered a summons to appear in court but will not be taken into custody or have to post bond.
According to the police search warrant, Cochran's car is registered in Buena Vista. The warrant did not list a home address for her, however.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB