A woman who suffocated her newborn baby girl to death in 2013 and placed her body face down in the trash has given birth again to a baby boy. In a court hearing, she told authorities she “doesn’t recall” where she dumped this baby’s body.
Melissa Mitin, a 25-year-old woman from Michigan, was charged last year with murder after allegedly suffocating her newborn daughter to death to conceal her pregnancy to family and friends.
Mitin allegedly had not known about her pregnancy when she delivered the baby in December, according to local police officials. The infant was born alive and was a few minutes old when she died. Dr. Joyce deJong, Ingham County’s medical examiner, ruled the death a “homicide due to a positional asphyxiation or due to a positional cause,” although she could not determine during autopsy how the baby was suffocated.
Mitin was arrested and arraigned May 12 in 55th District Court on the murder charge. She faces up to life in prison if convicted.
However, the young woman was out on bail in relation to that murder charge and she got pregnant again. Mitin was back court again this week and told officials about another baby she gave birth to, who is now missing.
From a report on this newest case of possible infanticide:
Melissa Mitin on Tuesday told an Ingham County family court judge that she “could not recall” where the baby boy is, Ingham County Assistant Prosecutor Debra Rousseau said at a hearing today in circuit court.
“Which is startling, to say the least,” Rousseau said, adding: “We believe she is a danger to the community — and of course the most vulnerable members (of the community) are infants who can’t speak for themselves.”
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Circuit Judge Jim Jamo ordered Mitin — who had been free on a $5,000 bond while she awaited trial in the 2013 case —to be held without bond at the Ingham County Jail.
Also today, Jamo granted a request by Mitin’s attorney, Frank Reynolds, to send her for competency tests at the state’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry. Those tests, to determine if she is competent to stand trial and if she can be held criminally responsible, typically are completed within 60 to 90 days.
Reynolds told Jamo that after meeting with Mitin Tuesday and based on her claims in family court that she doesn’t know where her baby boy is, “I have some serious concerns about her psychological well-being.”
