Tiona Rodriguez Murders Newborn Son, Goes Shopping With Dead Baby In Bag, Say Prosecutors
Brooklyn teen Tiona Rodriguez allegedly murdered her newborn son and stuffed him in a bag before heading to Victoria’s Secret two years ago. It seems this may not be the first time Rodriguez had been known to hide her pregnancy.
Tiona’s hidden birth was a shock to all but her friends when it happened. It hadn’t reached the point of upset that Planned Parenthood encountered when they released a video revealing how they were allegedly selling baby parts, as previously reported by the Inquisitr.
Rodriguez had gone into labor for the first time at 14 before her mother even knew she had conceived, says the New York Times. The first baby is under the care of the teen’s mother. Prosecutors say that a year later, the same thing happened and the baby was never found, having been ruled a miscarriage.
It was later revealed that Rodriguez had allegedly given her boyfriend details about how she would dispose of the baby. In light of these previous acts, it seemed clear that when Tiona had become pregnant once again at 17, she was used to covering it up.
It was also revealed later that Rodriguez had gone to her friend’s Queens apartment to hide the childbirth.
Knowing her family would be upset if they knew she’d gotten pregnant at all, Tiona Rodriguez murdered her new baby boy via suffocation, according to Yahoo News. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Rachel Ferrari explained the situation.
“She knew she would be in big trouble if her family found out, so she made a plan — to kill this baby. She had derailed her life once. She was not going to do it again.”
Tiona had allegedly made light of the news when she’d texted her friend before giving birth again, saying she was going to “dig a hole,” “put it somewhere,” and “then we go eat IHOP.”
The baby was discovered when Rodriguez and her friend had gone to Herald’s Square Victoria’s Secret in Manhattan and were caught shoplifting. The dead baby was found alongside a pair of stolen pants after the security guard caught the faint odor of something rotten.
Tiona Rodriguez explained the murdered baby as a stillbirth, but further investigation revealed the cause of death was not natural. Ferrari added that the baby had been alive for several minutes and had been “murdered in that bathroom” where the teen had gone to give birth.
US teen Tiona Rodriguez ‘went shopping after killing son’ http://t.co/UfigRNzAYW pic.twitter.com/ECNktsuzdR
— The Age (@theage) July 31, 2015
Rachel Ferrari had argued the case with Tiona’s lawyer and pointed out that the teen was an intelligent repeat offender, not the “confused young girl” that she’d claimed to be.
After it was discovered that Tiona Rodriguez allegedly murdered her newborn, she turned herself in and has now been charged with aggravated manslaughter.
[Image via David McGlynn / New York Post]
