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College athlete's newborn suffocated
PITTSBURGH - A girl born to a Mercyhurst College volleyball player in her on-campus apartment suffocated within minutes after birth, and authorities were weighing whether to charge the mother.
An autopsy showed the baby was nearly full term when the player, whom authorities did not identify, gave birth in her apartment bathroom Sunday afternoon, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said Tuesday. The baby's remains were found by police in a plastic bag after Mercyhurst officials called authorities.
Cook said it's possible the baby suffocated as a result of being placed in the plastic bag, or she may have been smothered by hand. The baby lived about 10 minutes outside the womb.
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District Attorney Brad Foulk said he hoped to make a decision by Friday on whether to charge the woman.
"We feel that we have a fairly comprehensive idea of what transpired," Foulk said. "But there are certain important things from an evidentiary and forensic standpoint that we want to firm up."
Officials at the Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Erie did not know immediately that the student had a baby and were motivated primarily by trying to help her, Foulk said.
Foulk gave the following account of Sunday's events:
The woman's roommate heard loud groaning in the bathroom at about 12:30 p.m. and later heard slapping sounds, water being run and the toilet being flushed repeatedly. The student, who had locked herself in the bathroom, refused help at first, but later asked her roommate to get her some medicine for menstrual pain. When the roommate returned with the medicine at about 1 p.m., she heard more sounds of distress in the bathroom. The roommate put the medicine in the mother's bedroom and discovered a large amount of blood there.
The roommate, also a volleyball player, then sent an instant message to an assistant coach, who came to the apartment. The roommate left for volleyball practice and the coach later took the mother to a hospital by 1:30 p.m.
The roommate was later told by the head volleyball coach that they needed to return to the apartment at about 4:30 p.m., at which time the head coach, the roommate and a campus police officer found the baby in the bag and called city police.
Gerard Tobin, vice president of student life at Mercyhurst, said it's not clear why the assistant coach and the roommate did not discover the baby sooner.
"I don't know how it was missed," Tobin said. "My understanding is that as soon as the infant was discovered it was reported within minutes."
Tobin said the roommate had "no training for how she's supposed to respond in such a situation, so she went to practice. I don't know that we can hold her responsible for that."
Foulk said investigators want to do further interviews with some school officials.
He said he is not bound to file criminal charges, despite the coroner's homicide ruling.
Tests on tissue samples from the infant were still being completed, but the coroner said authorities may never know exactly how the baby was smothered.
"We may not be able to ever determine that within a medical or scientific certainty," Cook said.
Mercyhurst has about 3,000 students, according to its Web site. Its sports team compete in the Division II Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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