By Kim McDarison
Information found within a criminal complaint filed by the Whitewater Police Department Tuesday notes that the Medical Examiner’s Office in Milwaukee was “not able to determine a cause of death” regarding the body of an infant found in Whitewater.
A story about charges filed against Whitewater resident Santos Asucena Caseres Cruz, who is alleged to be the child’s mother, is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/whitewater-woman-charged-with-neglecting-a-child-resulting-in-death/.
The criminal complaint, which brings charges against Caseres Cruz of neglecting a child with a consequence of death and move, hide, bury a corpse of a child, alleges that the defendant “did negligently fail to provide necessary care so as to seriously endanger the physical, mental and emotional health of a child, and the child suffered death as a consequence.” The action constitutes a Class D felony.
Additionally, the complaint alleges that the defendant near the date of March 4, which is when the body was discovered, without legal authority, moved, hid or buried the corpse, which constitutes a Class F felony.
Information submitted by the Whitewater Police Department states that the body was found near the Twin Oaks Trailer Park in Whitewater, within a portion of the city which is located in Jefferson County, at 11:11 a.m.
The body was found in a cardboard box approximately five yards off of the roadway at the far end of the mobil home park, according to the complaint.
The complaint notes that the individuals who called the police using 911 said they found the body in a field near the trailer park at approximately 11:05 a.m., after they carried the box toward the road and looked inside.
A Whitewater police detective said he arrived at the scene around 12:15 p.m. and noted that the infant was wrapped in a blood-stained shirt, with the umbilical cord still attached, and the placenta was found in a separate garbage bag.
The body was taken to the Milwaukee Medical Examiner’s office. Whitewater detectives also received photographs from the Wisconsin State Crime Lab resulting from forensic imaging of the shipping label on the cardboard box in which the infant was found. The address led police to an individual described as “Witness 1.”
As described within the complaint, conversations with Witness 1 led police to Caseres Cruz.
Police interviewed Caseres Cruz on March 24, according to the complaint, at which time she told police she was not pregnant and had not concealed a newborn in a field. The defendant consented to a buccal swab and to allowing law enforcement to search her residence and car.
During the search of the defendants car, law enforcement agents found articles similar to those in which the baby’s body was found.
Caseres Cruz was arrested on March 24.
Conversations held with an individual identified as Witness 2 led police to the understanding that in late January, the defendant was suffering from stomach pain and possibly hemorrhaging.
According to the complaint, the defendant, in a subsequent interview, told police that she was previously pregnant and had experienced stomach pain on January 27 at approximately 6 p.m., which, the complaint stated, “was a few days away from her due date and she believed she was going to give birth.”
She did not tell her children about her circumstances because, the complaint stated: “she did not want to lose contact with them because she was pregnant with a different man than their father.”
After laying in the bathtub and laboring for about an hour, the defendant said she gave birth to a boy, the complaint noted, adding that when the child was born, he was not breathing or moving. The defendant said he did not cry and she believed he was dead, the complaint indicated.
According to the complaint, the defendant told police that she “continually checked to see if the baby was breathing, but never felt him move or breathe.”
Police indicated that her statement was “modified,” alleging that the defendant has earlier said that she knew the baby was alive when he was born, but was possibly choking.
After the baby was born, he started “getting purple,” the defendant told police, according to the complaint. As the night went on, the release continued, the baby’s arms and hands also turned purple.
According to the complaint, the defendant told police that she did not call 911 because she was scared her children would find out that she had been pregnant.
The complaint states: “The defendant said approximately half an hour after she gave birth and set the baby under the sink in the plastic bag, her other children were asleep and quiet. She retrieved the baby from inside the cabinet, wrapped the baby in a pink sweatshirt and put the baby inside a cardboard box. She placed the box on her bed and cried all night.”
At approximately 4:30 a.m., the complaint reported, the defendant removed the baby from the bag, cut the umbilical cord to separate the baby from the placenta and placed the baby in a black garbage bag. At approximately 5 a.m., she drove to the field near the trailer park and left the baby behind.
“She said she checked on the box every day and cried,” according to the complaint.
Caseres Cruz, who appeared in Jefferson County Circuit Court Tuesday by video conference from the Jefferson County Jail, will next appear in court for a preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday, April 4, at 9 a.m.
The full criminal complaint is here: http://fortatkinsononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Complaint-Criminal_2-Caseres-Cruz-Santos-Asucena-2023CF000114-Caseres-Cruz-Santos-Asucena_3049727_1.pdf.
File photo.
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