Jul 3, 2009 7:45 pm US/Pacific
Woman Gives Birth, Leaves Baby In Port-A-Potty
CAMBRIDGE, Md. (CBS) ―
-
-
A woman gave birth in a portable toilet at a park, then dropped the newborn girl into the waste holding tank. (File)
Roger Kisby/Getty Images
It's a case both disturbing and bizarre.
A woman gives birth inside a port-a-potty, and leaves the baby in there.
It happened in a park in Cambridge, Dorchester County.
This is just the latest in a number of cases of infant abandonment in Maryland, reports CBS station WJZ-TV in Baltimore.
A trail of blood surrounds the scene of what many call a sad and shocking crime.
"She walked around the port-a-potty and we noticed she was covered in, at the time I didn't know it was blood," says John Lednum.
Candy Michelle Vignari, 44, had just given birth inside a port-a-potty.
According to charging documents, a witness called 911 Monday morning after Vignari asked for a cigarette, then said she just had a baby and the baby was in the toilet.
"Basically, I think that the only thing that really saved the baby was the amount of trash and everything else that was in the actual port-a-potty which is probably one of the things that saved the baby from drowning," said another eyewitness.
"Right as the cops had pulled up I had seen her go back into the port-a-potty real quick grabbed a towel at the time I didn't know what it was and then she comes over to the cops and the cops grabbed the baby," adds Lednum.
Police believe Vignari planned to abandon the child.
Just this past March, two fishermen found an infant's body stuffed inside a bag left floating in a lake in Prince George's County.
Last October, a baby's body was found in a trash bin behind a church in Charles Village. Police later charged the mother with murder.
In 2007, a former Villa Julie College student was convicted of murder for leaving her newborn in a storm drain. She's now serving a twenty-year prison sentence.
Vignari was released from jail and is charged with child abuse and reckless endangerment. The baby is listed in stable condition at a hospital in Easton.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
U.S. House Passes Health Care Bill 42 mins ago 
'Fireball' Streaks Across Bay Area Night Sky 8 mins ago
Stumble It!
Comments