Apr 18, 2007 2:54 pm US/Central
Teen Who Stabbed Baby Knew About 'Safe Haven' Law
Stillwater, Minn. (AP) ―
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Beecroft has been preliminarily charged with first-degree murder, which a grand jury would have to confirm. (File)
Washington County
An Oakdale teen now charged in the stabbing death of her newborn daughter was told by a high school classmate a few days before the killing about Minnesota's "Safe Haven" law, police said.
Oakdale Police Capt. Mike Grill said a Tartan High School classmate told Nicole Beecroft, 17, about the law which allows a mother to leave her baby at a hospital without penalties -- if the baby is unharmed and no more than three days old.
Grill said the classmate even offered to drive Beecroft to the hospital.
Why Beecroft's newborn wasn't brought to a hospital isn't known. But an expert said few teens take advantage of the legislation.
"Very few adolescents use this (law)," said Esther Wattenberg, a University of Minnesota professor who serves on a state child-mortality review committee. "But I don't know why."
She said, "no one has studied that reluctance," but teens may doubt they would really escape punishment if they brought their infant to a hospital.
Beecroft has been preliminarily charged with first-degree murder, which a grand jury would have to confirm. Beecroft remains in the juvenile detention center of the Washington County jail. Bail has been set at $1 million.
According to the criminal complaint, prosecutors allege the teen gave birth at 3 a.m. on April 9 in the laundry room of her Oakdale home, stabbed the baby girl 135 times and put the baby in a garbage can outside the house.
Both the girls' boyfriend and her mother have told investigators they didn't know she was pregnant. Police said they also don't know why the girl would have kept the pregnancy secret or whether she faced any pressure not to have the baby.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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