Housekeeper Allegedly Tossed Newborn Baby In Trash, Charged With Murder

A live-in housekeeper who allegedly gave birth in the bathroom of her employer’s Long Island, N.Y., waterfront mansion has been charged with second degree murder.

The woman reportedly kept the pregnancy secret even from her husband. After the birth last Sunday, authorities claim she put the baby in a plastic bag and asked her husband to put what she told him was garbage in a trash bin. She then asked her spouse to take her to the hospital because she wasn’t felling well. Hospital staff apparent called Suffolk County Police after they examined her and determined she had given birth.

According to the lawyer for Santos Elena Ruiz Solano, 26, the baby girl was stillborn, but authorities contend that the baby was born alive and suffered traumatic injuries before being placed in a plastic bag. Police recovered the lifeless baby’s body from a garbage can near the West Islip mansion.

Prosecutor Glenn Kurtzrock said that “the baby had three skull fractures that would have been caused by at least one impact. When babies are born their skulls are very pliable, so to cause those fractures would have required a significant amount of force.” He added that “There is no way of knowing if an object was used or if the baby’s head was struck against an object. By the time the police looked at the bathroom, it had been cleaned up.”

The woman, who had been on the job for just three weeks, is reportedly an illegal alien from Honduras, and her lawyer claims that his client was raped during the long overland journey to this country. She has pleaded not guilty, and the lawyer also theorized that “the baby’s skull fractures could have resulted from falling against a toilet bowl while being delivered.” Solano, who has two other children who live in Honduras, is being held without bail.