A 16-year-old Colorado girl has been charged with murder after she allegedly suffocated her newborn baby by shoving a rock down her throat, officials said this week.
Police say Alaya Dotson suffocated the baby about an hour after she gave birth on Sept. 8 at her Denver home, local media reported. She was arrested two days later.
The baby’s death was ruled a homicide by the Denver Medical Examiner’s Office, which released its findings this week, according to ABC affiliate Denver7.
Dotson had told investigators that she did not know she was in labor until she woke up to use the bathroom, the news outlet reported.
After giving birth to the baby, who was named Amekah, the teen told cops that she went into her bedroom and was “lying on the floor with the baby right next to her,” adding that the “baby’s arms were moving back and forth, but she was not crying,” according to Denver7.
Cops say Dotson then took the newborn out on the patio and jammed a rock down her throat with her thumb and “wrapped the baby in the blanket and set her down on the ground.”
Dotson’s mom, who did not know her daughter was pregnant, called 911 after discovering the child wrapped up in a bloody blanket outside.
The young girl’s preliminary court hearing is scheduled for January, WMUR.com reported.