Wisconsin Woman Guilty of Murder

(Milwaukee, Wisconsin) A 34-year-old local woman, Annette Morales-Rodriguez, has been convicted of murdering a pregnant woman and her fetus.

Maritza Ramirez-Cruz, 23, died when Morales-Rodriguez bludgeoned and choked her into unconsciousness and used a small blade to carve out the fetus.

She told investigators she was desperate to have a son, that she had faked a pregnancy and that she devised a plan to steal an unborn baby as her supposed due date approached.

Ramirez-Cruz died due to a combination of blood loss, blunt trauma and asphyxiation, and the male fetus died as a result of her death, a medical examiner testified.[…]

In the ensuing investigation and autopsy, a medical examiner found evidence that the baby wasn't the product of a natural birth. A subsequent examination verified Morales-Rodriguez hadn't given birth.

Police later found Ramirez-Cruz's disemboweled body in Morales-Rodriguez's basement.

Sentencing is scheduled for December 14 when Morales-Rodriguez faces a mandatory life term in prison.