Woman Faces Murder Charge After Leaving Newborn in Garage to Freeze to Death

State   |   Dave Andrusko   |   Jan 29, 2015   |   7:12PM   |   Roseville, MI

Angela Marie Alexie, a 24-year-old homeless woman, is charged with giving birth to a baby boy, leaving him in an unheated uninsulated, wood-sided garage in Eastpointe, Michigan, where the baby died two days later, Roseville Police Detective Brad McKenzie told District Judge Carl F. Gerds III during the woman’s arraignment Wednesday.

Alexie, who has three other children (1, 2, and 4) all in foster care, is charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse. If convicted of the murder charge, Alexie faces life in prison without parole.

Bond was set at $1 million.

Alexie gave birth by herself, according to the Detroit Free Press’ Christina Hall, on December 22, “left him there for the next couple of days, coming from the house every few hours to check on the newborn or to try to feed him, police said.

The temperatures dropped to the 20s and 30s on the nights of December 22-24.

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“About 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve, police said, the infant died of neglect and exposure,” Hall reported. “His mother, authorities charge, hid the body in the garage for several more weeks and finally put the dead child, wrapped only in a torn, black T-shirt, out at the curb in a plastic recycling bin, discarded with the trash.”

The baby’s body was discovered by horrified employees at the ReCommunity Recycling in Roseville on January 14, his umbilical cord still attached.

Hall reported

Authorities worked around the clock to determine his identity, even traveling to mid-Michigan for clues. …

Berlin said police got no tips for six days. Then, some started to filter in about Alexie. A trip to St. Clair County on Monday provided them with information that led to her arrest that day. Police declined to elaborate on that information.

Roseville Police Chief James Berlin, who told Hall that Alexie has been “very calm,” said she does not admit placing the baby in the bin. Alexie claimed someone else put her dead baby in a garbage bin.

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“But we believe she acted alone,” he said.

Employees of the Macomb County Medical Examiner’s Office unofficially named the baby Henry Alexander Macomb, rather than John Doe, paying homage to Macomb County’s namesake, Gen. Alexander Macomb.

Alexie, who is homeless, has a Facebook page where she describes herself as a “stay at home mom.”

Police Chief James Berlin no doubt would differ in his assessment. After his court appearance, he said, “This baby must have suffered greatly.”

The headline to Hall’s story perhaps says it all: “Baby boy died cold and alone — discarded with the trash.”

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared at National Right to Life News Today.