A college student charged with murdering her newborn had images of Casey Anthony on her phone, the Florida sheriff’s office investigating the case said this week.
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Anne Demegillo, 20, gave birth early March 5 in a toilet at her Palm Coast home, watched the baby girl cry and drown, went to class, worked on a campus play and returned to bury the infant, sheriff’s officials said in a news release.
On Monday, a grand jury indicted Demegillo on charges of first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated child abuse and failure to report a death with intent to conceal evidence, court and jail records show. She remained in custody on no bail.
Her defense lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Demegillo was arrested March 6 and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, and she posted bail roughly a week later after her parents put up the residence they shared as collateral, according to court and jail records.
In an affidavit, police said that she’d messaged a friend to tell her what she is alleged to have done and that the friend called police.
According to the document, Demegillo told police she took the baby out of the toilet once she had stopped moving, wrapped the girl in a blanket, put her in a duffel bag, stored the bag in her bedroom closet and gone to perform a school play before she came back and buried the girl in a shallow grave in the backyard.
“She reported watching the infant moving inside the toilet with its head partially submerged, hearing it cry, and waiting until it stopped moving and crying,” police said in the affidavit.
In a statement, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said Demegillo had images of Casey Anthony on her phone and had looked up “newborn premature babies” and “foods to decrease fertility.”
Anthony’s baby disappeared in Florida in 2008, and Anthony reported the case to authorities 31 days later, triggering an investigation and the discovery of the baby’s body nearby. Charges of murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter were not proved in court during a highly publicized trial that gripped the nation.
She served about three years in prison while she was awaiting trial and was ultimately convicted of misdemeanor lying to police.
In a statement Monday, Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly described Demegillo’s case as shocking.
“This is one of those tragic cases that shock you to your core that a mother would allow a newborn to die because the newborn was a distraction to her life,” he said. “It’s hard to comprehend how a mother would choose to watch their infant drown instead of lifting the baby out of the toilet.”
Demegillo’s arraignment is scheduled for April 21.
Palm Coast is a city of around 106,000 people about 68 miles south of Jacksonville.