A mental health observation was ordered Friday for a DC woman accused of killing her newborn son in her bathroom last November.
The mother, Lillian Alvarado, appeared in court to be presented with charges of felony murder and cruelty to children. She was ordered held on the charges because of their severity and also because she is an undocumented immigrant.
Prosecutors say police were called to Alvarado’s apartment building the morning after Thanksgiving by Alvarado’s downstairs neighbors who reported “leaking water mixed with blood” coming through the ceiling of their Brightwood apartment. When police checked the upstairs unit Alvarado, 21, was locked in the bathroom with a newborn floating in a tub filled with water, charging documents state.
The child’s legs were later found by crime scene investigators in the toilet.
Autopsy reports determined that the baby had been born alive and that it had died of asphyxia and dismemberment.
In interview with police in November Alvarado told investigators that she knew she was pregnant in April or May of 2013 and was about seven and a half or eight months pregnant when she began experiencing back and stomach pains. She said she took a shower thinking she might have to go to the hospital but that while in the shower she delivered the baby standing in the tub.
She said she grabbed a pair of scissors in the sink and tried to cut the umbilical cord. She said she did not hear the baby cry and she did not noticed if the baby had both arms and legs.
This is the second time this week a mother has been charged with the death of her child. Tisheena Brown was arrested Sunday in connection with the death of her one-month-old son, Hakeem Brown. That child died from a prescription drug overdose.
Attorney Cynthia Wright is the prosecutor for both cases and commented on the Alvarado case saying, “This is a horrific crime of murder where a mother delivered a child that was born alive, cut off his legs, tried to flush them down the toilet and compressed his neck and drowned him.”
Alvarado is due back in court Monday for the results of her mental health observation.
Charging documents have been added to this post.
