An Illinois woman admitted to leaving a baby to die along a rural roadside five years ago. The woman, Katie Stockton, is already under arrest in the suspected death of two infants.
The infants’ bodies were in the trunk of an impounded car that belonged to Stockton. It was sitting in an impound lot for more than a year when authorities searched it after the woman’s arrest in 2009.
ABC News reports that Stockton’s initial arrest was about Baby Crystal, the baby girl Stockton allegedly left to die in the cold. Authorities believe the baby was Stockton’s daughter.
In an agreement with prosecutors, Stockton pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the baby’s death. After doing DNA testing, authorities found that the Rockton, Illinois resident was likely the mother of the two infants in her car. She has yet to be charged in their deaths.
Stockton was questioned in connection with Baby Crystal’s death in 2004, though she wasn’t arrested at the time. The Daily Mail notes that it is unlikely the 32-year-old will face charges for the other two infants’ deaths, because detectives have not been able to prove the babies were born alive.
Despite the fact that she wasn’t initially arrested, Stockton has been a person of interest in the case since the infant’s remains were found along a dead-end road near her parents’ home. Prosecutors have said that they interviewed her hours after the discovery. After saying the baby wasn’t hers, she allegedly lifted her shirt and asked if it looked like she had recently given birth.
Despite refusing to give a DNA sample, authorities were able to gather it from a cigarette Stockton discarded. They arrested her and charged her with Baby Crystal’s death after the DNA sample was a 99.96 percent match.
When she is sentenced on April 5, Katie Stockton faced 60 years in prison.
