Arrest after woman cuts unborn from mum’s womb
A WOMAN who offered baby clothes for sale stabbed a pregnant woman who responded to her advertisement and cut the unborn child from her womb, police said yesterday.
Dynel Lane, 34, is believed to be a married mother of two who offered the clothes on the website Craigslist. She was due in court yesterday to face charges of attempted murder, assault and child abuse resulting in death.
Her alleged victim has been identified only as a 26-year-old woman who was seven months pregnant and travelled to Lane’s home in Longmont, Colorado. Jeff Satur, a local police commander, described the attack that followed. He said that once inside the home, the pregnant woman was beaten and stabbed in the stomach. ‘‘She was attacked and her baby was removed from her,’’ he said.
Officers who were called to the house arrived to hear the woman inside screaming for help. She was rushed to Longmont United Hospital where she underwent surgery, and is expected to recover. Police said that they then found Lane in the same hospital.
Following the alleged attack, Lane was driven to hospital by her husband, carrying the baby’s body and claiming to have suffered a miscarriage, according to the Denver Post . ‘‘The suspect is at the hospital also, and in contact with our officers,’’ Satur told the paper. The man was subsequently escorted back to the hospital, though Satur said that he was not suspected of involvement in the attack.
Officials have not discussed a motive except to intimate that the suspect may be suffering from mental illness. She was arrested at the hospital on Thursday evening and was in jail yesterday awaiting an initial court hearing.
Online records suggest that Lane was once a certified nurse’s aide, although her licence appears to have expired in 2012. She also appears to have posted a baby registry, listing suggested gifts – clothes and sheets, a baby carrier and a crib – and stating that her child was due last November.
Police said that she had called herself ‘‘D’’ or ‘‘Dynel’’ in her advert on Craigslist, and are seeking to question anyone else who may have responded and gone to her home.
The attack is the latest in a recent series of violent attacks targeting victims who respond to advertisements on Craigslist. In January a couple in their sixties who were seeking to buy a vintage car drove to a rural part of south Georgia to meet a man who claimed to own a Mustang and were found shot dead. Last month, in the same state, a college student was robbed and murdered after responding to an advertisement for an iPhone 6.
Police departments and sheriff’s offices in several states have sought to offer ‘‘safe zones’’, in police stations or in car parks, where such transactions can take place under CCTV. Robert Knox, a police chief from Illinois, warned of the potential danger and said: ‘‘We just want to get this information out there and get ahead of the situation.’’