Image: BMI/Gerd Pachauer
Passers-by noticed the heavily bleeding mother in the apartment building and called the emergency services. The rescue then found the dead baby in the apartment. “Due to the evidence, the mother is suspected of having killed her son after the home birth,” the police said. The woman later confessed.
When asked by APA, spokesman Fritz Grundnig said that the traces were “clear”. On Thursday, neighbors in and around the apartment building, in which the Austrian apparently lives alone in an apartment, were questioned. The woman herself was taken to a hospital on Wednesday due to massive blood loss and could only be questioned on Thursday. She admitted to killing her baby because she was overwhelmed by the situation, investigators said. She also stated that she didn’t realize she was pregnant.
The woman was still in the hospital on Thursday. The public prosecutor’s office in Leoben will decide how to proceed in the coming days and will probably also be related to the state of health of the 27-year-old. An autopsy of the infant was already carried out on Thursday and confirmed the cause of death as “massive external violence”. However, the police are not releasing any details at this time.
Paragraph 79 of the Criminal Code – killing a child at birth – could come into play during the investigation. A mother who kills the child during birth or while she is still under the influence of the birth process is punishable with imprisonment from six months to five years.
Source: Nachrichten
