Baby Found Dead in Freezer

(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) A 22-year-old local woman, Christine Hutchinson, was arrested and charged yesterday with abuse of a corpse after police found a frozen baby's body in her freezer. Police were alerted by a caller from Texas who is familiar with Hutchinson.

Officers were told of the 911 call around 12:30 p.m. saying there was "possibly a baby that was dead and was in a freezer in an apartment in Bloomfield," a working-class neighborhood several miles east of downtown, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said.

Detectives found what they at first described as a late-term fetus in a brown bag in the freezer, police said.

Hutchinson reportedly told police that she gave birth to the baby girl on April 22nd, however, she never notified anyone.

Police do not know if the baby was alive when it was born, but said it was first wrapped in a plastic bag, before it was also placed in the brown bag that was packed into a Miller High Life beer box they found in the freezer, the affidavit said. Police did not say if Hutchinson told them why she put the baby in the freezer.

Lt. Daniel Herrmann said additional charges could be filed, depending on what an autopsy revealed Friday.

Consequently, police are continuing to investigate. Hutchinson is in custody with arraignment scheduled for later today.