Rosibel Lanza: Mom Who Tossed Her Newborn Baby Over Fence In Shopping Bag Learns Her Fate

When Rosibel Lanza, of Jersey City, New Jersey gave birth to her first and only child two years ago, she did something that for most moms would be absolutely unthinkable. Now, on Friday, the 40-year-old Lanza learned exactly how she’ll pay for her bizarre and chilling crime.

When the baby boy was discovered in a neighbor’s yard back on August 31 of 2013, the child was dubbed “Baby Moses,” because similar to how the Biblical character was found in a basket, the newborn infant was found inside a plastic bag.

According to an account of her arrest on the N news site, Lanza gave birth to the boy by herself in her Jersey City apartment. But as soon as the child was delivered, she stuffed him into a plastic shopping bag along with some paper towels and toilet paper — and then she tied the bag closed.

What she did next was even more horrifying.

“Ms. Lanza put the baby in a plastic bag, threw the baby over a fence in the plastic bag to, basically to the other side of the yard, to deter detection,” said Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor John Mulkeen, during Friday’s court hearing. “Some children heard a noise, what they thought was a cat, and they find the baby. They find some adults and they save the baby.”

The child was placed in the care of the state after that, but has since been adopted. However, according to Mulkeen, the little boy suffers from “cognitive issues” that may have resulted from his premature birth, but could also have been caused by the time he spent as a newborn baby suffocating inside a plastic bag before being rescued.

Melvin Lanza, Rosibel Lanza’s brother, said that he was baffled when his sister was arrested — he didn’t even know she was pregnant. Not only is she unmarried and, according to the brother, had not been in a romantic relationship for some time when she was arrested two years ago, but doctors told her she was physically unable to have children.

“Never in a million years would I have thought she would have done that,” said Melvin. “She (is) a quiet person and kept to herself…. I never knew she was pregnant.”

But she was pregnant, and as a result of the terrible thing she did to her newborn baby, Rosibel Lanza will spend the next six years in prison — after agreeing to a plea deal that reduced her sentence from a possible 10 to 20 years on an attempted murder charge.

[Image: Hudson County Sheriff’s Department]