Susan Hatters-Friedman, MD, a forensic and perinatal psychiatrist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine who has studied child killings, says that neonaticides like that of Baby John Doe fit a similar tragic pattern and are different from other types of child murders committed by parents.

Typically, the mothers are in their teens or twenties and unmarried. They have limited financial means and the father isn’t in the picture. Some come from very religious or strict households or may themselves be victims of s***** or domestic assault. They almost always deny or conceal their pregnancy. Some are in such a state of denial that they don’t realize they’re having a baby until they go into labor.

“What’s behind this denial or concealment is fear of what would happen if people knew she was pregnant,” Hatters-Friedman says.

These women fear public shame and repercussions from their parents, friends, or community if their pregnancies were found out. They may be afraid of getting kicked out of their house, being shunned from their culture or religion, or losing their job. Postpartum depression isn’t a factor, at least not in first-time mothers, because symptoms take days, weeks, or even months after birth to appear.

In an effort to prevent neonaticides and other infant killings, states began adopting “Safe Haven” laws, beginning with Texas in 1999. These laws allow parents to anonymously surrender their babies at certain designated places like firehouses, police stations, and hospitals without facing criminal charges. California enacted its version in 2001, over a decade after Lopez allegedly left her newborn’s body in a bag near a creek.

Since the enactment of these laws, about 4,100 infants in the United States have been safely surrendered, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Neonaticides have decreased substantially over the years, but killings on the first day of birth remain at least five times higher than the rate at any other time in life.

“Oftentimes, the right population isn’t aware of these laws,” Hatters-Friedman says. And even if more young mothers knew about them, getting a newborn to one of these locations could be a barrier.
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In Austria, a law that allows women to deliver their babies in a hospital without disclosing their identity was associated with a drop in newborn killings. Oberman says family doctors, teachers, and guidance counselors should be trained to look for signs of pregnancy in teenagers and young women so they can offer support earlier. Meanwhile, the CDC report recommends offering greater economic support, affordable health care, and education to young parents to prevent these tragedies.

There is less consensus on how to punish women who commit neonaticide. In Canada, the U.K., and some European countries, killing an infant within the first few months of life is treated as a lesser crime than other homicides. In the United States, however, charges and sentences vary widely.

In one Baby Doe case solved with genetic genealogy this year, a woman won’t face criminal charges for leaving her newborn in a Connecticut parking lot to freeze to death in the winter of 1988. The woman, Karen Kuzmak Roche, who was 25 at the time, called the local fire department alerting them of “something in the parking lot.” In another case solved this year, a judge in Colorado sentenced Jennifer Katalinich to 90 days in prison, along with probation and community service, for killing her newborn 24 years ago when she was an 18-year-old college student. She was initially charged with murder, but the charges were reduced to less serious offenses.

Before the advent of genetic genealogy, two young women in Muskingum County, Ohio, were given vastly different sentences despite the similarities of their cases. In 2002, 21-year-old college student Jennifer Bryant was arrested for the death of her newborn, whose body was found in a trash bin behind her home. In a second case, Emile Weaver, a 20-year-old college student, was arrested in 2015 after leaving her baby to die in a trash bag behind her sorority house. Bryant served just seven months in prison while Weaver was sentenced to life.

“There’s such a wide range of sentencing,” says Hatters-Friedman. “I think it’s because of how we as a society and thus, the jury, sees this woman. Do we see her as evil and murderous and monstrous? Or do we see her as a victim herself?”
The New York Times