Santos Asucena Caseres Cruz: Wisconsin mom leaves dead newborn in box after hiding pregnancy from family
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WHITEWATER, WISCONSIN: A mother who abandoned her dead newborn baby has been officially charged with neglecting a child. Santos Asucena Caseres Cruz, a woman from Wisconsin, kept her pregnancy a secret from her family and then concealed her child in a box.
The Wisconsin woman, 39, was taken into custody last week and charged with one count each of neglecting a child resulting in death and moving, hiding, or burying a child's body, according to court papers acquired by Law&Crime.
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Who is Santos Asucena Caseres Cruz?
Santos Asucena Caseres Cruz, 39, of Whitewater, was arrested on Friday, March 24, and is currently being held in the Jefferson County Jail after being charged with neglecting a child resulting in death and moving, hiding, or burying a corpse of a child in relation to a body of an infant discovered in a field earlier this month.
How did officials find out about the baby?
At approximately 11 am on March 4, Whitewater Police Department officers responded to the scene of an infant's death at the Twin Oaks Trailer Park, which is located about 55 miles west of Milwaukee, as per a criminal complaint submitted to Jefferson County Circuit Court. Authorities found a cardboard package five yards from the road in which they found the infant's remains, a black trash bag, and a scrap of red fabric. The report states that the investigators claimed the baby was encased in a blood-stained shirt. According to the police, the infant still had "ruminants of blood from birth on his body" and his umbilical cord was still attached.
What did Witness 1 say?
The results of an autopsy did not instantly reveal the cause of death. A crime lab received the box for examination. Through the use of forensic imaging, investigators produced a picture of the shipping tag with the location clearly visible. The person whose location was found was listed in the document as 'Witness 1.' In a police interrogation on March 24, Witness 1 stated that his father had said that he thought Cruz, Witness 1's mother, had an affair and was conceived by a man who was not Witness 1's father. Witness 1 also stated that his father thought his mother had later had an abortion.
'She said she would never do that'
Cruz was questioned by investigators after that and claimed "she was not pregnant and did not conceal a newborn infant in a field," according to the complaint. "She said she would never do that to a baby," the document reads. "She said the accusations by her ex-husband, who was abusive, were untrue." The woman reportedly consented to a vehicle and house search and gave authorities a buccal swab.
What did Witness 2 say?
Another child of Cruz, named 'Witness 2,' reported to the police that her mother spent an extended stretch of time in the bathroom on January 27 due to stomach pain. Witness 2 reported that she thought her mother had been bleeding because there was so much blood.
What did Cruz confess?
The mother reportedly revealed that she was pregnant and gave birth on January 27 during a second interview with her on March 24. She kept her pregnancy a secret from her children out of fear that she wouldn't be able to keep in touch with them "because she was pregnant with a different man than their father."
What did she do to the baby?
She outlined how the boy was born in the bathtub, where she also noted he wasn't crying or breathing. After checking on him, she placed the placenta and the infant inside a plastic bag that she claimed to have left open in case the child began to breathe. Cruz then stowed his bag in a cabinet underneath the sink, as reported by The Sun.
'His face started getting purple first'
Cruz changed her statement to reflect that she "knew the baby was alive when it was born, but was possibly choking," according to the complaint. The official criminal complaint can be accessed on Law&Crime. "When her baby was born, he had to have been alive, and she did not do anything, so that is how he might have died,” it reads. "After the baby was born, he started getting purple. His face started getting purple first, then as the night went on, his body, then his arms and hands. She never helped the baby. She did not call 911 because she was scared of her children finding out she was pregnant."
'Checked on the box every day and cried'
Cruz placed the infant in a box next to her bed and "cried all night" because she was too afraid to contact 911 while her children were asleep. She then got in her vehicle, drove to a field close to the trailer park, and dropped the baby off there. She further said that she "checked on the box every day and cried." There is no known cause of death, according to the Milwaukee Medical Examiner's Office. Cruz was taken into custody and her bond was set at $10,000. She will appear in court for a preliminary hearing on April 4.