Was murdered mother-to-be the victim of womb raiders?
Police fear she was killed so her neighbours could take the baby
THE body of a missing motherto-be who was feared to be the victim of ‘womb raiders’ was found wrapped in plastic and dumped in a river.
Police say the victim could have had her unborn child removed from her body in a horrific case that has shocked America.
Brooke Crews, 38, and boyfriend William Hoehn, 32, were charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the case of pregnant Savanna Greywind, who was last seen visiting their home.
Miss Greywind’s body was found in a river eight days later wrapped up in plastic tied up with duct tape.
A baby girl believed to be Miss Greywind’s had earlier been found safe and well with Crews at the flat she shared with Hoehn. Court papers state Crews admitted to police that ‘she had taken advantage of Savanna Greywind in an attempt to obtain her child and possibly keep the child as her own’.
The documents do not divulge how Miss Greywind, who was eight months pregnant, died.
Police investigating the case had said the 22-year-old could have been held against her will until her child was born, or that the baby could have been forcibly removed.
The suspects gave conflicting accounts of what happened, according to the court papers.
Crews told police that she arranged for Miss Greywind to visit her flat on August 19 and told her how to induce labour.
She claimed Miss Greywind then came back two days later to give her the newborn baby.
But Crews’s boyfriend Hoehn told police a different story, the documents reveal.
He said he came home on August 19 to find Crews cleaning up blood in the bathroom. Hoehn said Crews presented him with an infant and told him, ‘ This is our baby. This is our family.’ He told police he took rubbish bags containing bloody shoes and bloody towels and disposed of them away from the apartment complex, according to the documents.
The case has drawn speculation that Miss Greywind may have fallen victim to ‘womb raiders’ – a phenomenon which is also known as ‘newborn kidnapping by caesarean section’.
There have been 20 known cases in the US of womb raiding, the most gruesome instances of which are when the mother is cut open and the baby is removed.
Miss Greywind, who worked as a nursing assistant, lived in the flat below Crews in Fargo, North Dakota, and appears to have been friends with her.
She was reported missing on August 19 after she did not return from Crews’s flat. Her parents have said that she visited the neighbour for a dress fitting.
Crews told police that during Miss Greywind’s final visit she taught the mother-to-be how to self-induce birth by breaking her own waters.
She claimed that Miss Greywind came back on August 21 at 3.30am and handed her the baby girl.
Crews and Hoehn were arrested last week after detectives discovered a healthy infant at their home. The child is presumed to be Miss Greywind’s daughter.
Police said DNA tests to confirm this are pending.
Miss Greywind’s body was found by kayakers near a farm in the neighbouring state, Minnesota. At a Press conference, Fargo police chief David Todd said Miss Greywind was ‘a victim of a cruel and vicious act of depravity’.
He said: ‘We were investigating several different theories, including Savanna being held against her will and/or her unborn child being induced or removed and possibly being alive.’
Crews and Hoehn have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and providing false information to law enforcement.
‘Cruel and vicious act of depravity’