Rozalba Maria Grime: Woman who killed friend, cut her open to steal unborn child jailed
Trigger warning: The content of this article may be sensitive to some readers
A woman who stole the unborn baby of her friend after killing her and cutting open her womb has been jailed. On August 27 in Brazil's Canelinha last year, 27-year-old Rozalba Maria Grime lured Flavia Godinho Mafra, 24, to a fake baby shower. She then beat her to death with a brick, cut her open and stole her unborn child.
At a 15-hour long trial, Grime was found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted murder of a baby, concealment of a corpse, obstruction of justice, abduction of a minor and denying the rights of a newborn. The trial revealed that Grime had actually planned the crime, spending time to study how an unborn child can be removed from the mother's womb. She even researched the methods to simulate the symptoms of pregnancy and childbirth.
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The defendant said that she lured Mafra to an abandoned pottery where she battered the victim to death with bricks available there. Mafra was then 36-week pregnant. Grime cut the victim's belly with a utility knife and removed her unborn baby. She then hid her body in a kiln.
After murdering her friend, Grime went to a hospital in Canelinha with her partner who believed she had been pregnant and given birth. She told the staff that she had just given birth on a thoroughfare. The hospital staff, however, were suspicious and called the police. Initially, her partner was suspected of being involved in the crime, but he was later released from custody on October 7 last year. He was acquitted on July 27 this year after the prosecutor concluded that he genuinely believed Grime was pregnant. The woman's defense may appeal the sentence.
In a similar incident back in 2011, Jamie Stice, 21, was kidnapped and murdered by a woman she had met on Facebook. Stice had put up an ad on the social media platform, reaching out to other pregnant women to get in touch with and receive advice from. One Kentucky woman responded and the two eventually became friends, before Stice suddenly went missing. Her body was found days later with her gut pulled out. It turned out that the woman she met on Facebook — Kathy Coy of Morgantown — cut out her baby to try and pass it off as her own, in an attempt to save her failing marriage.