To Have a Child (a Tragic Tale)
Posted: Wednesday, October 12, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
My wife and I had three kids. Our problem was not having one when we didn’t want to. We failed at that once, but, boy; she sure is a wonderful woman and mother herself now. For many couples their problem is the opposite. Several of my friends spent years and years and tens of thousands of dollars before they could have a child. I know some who were never able to. All of us who have experienced a “normal” reproductive life can only express gratitude for the blessing.
Morales-Rodriguez told investigators that she had planned for a couple of weeks to find a pregnant woman, take the baby from her and claim it as her own. She drove around last Wednesday (10/5/11), searching for a pregnant woman but couldn't find one. She thought about telling her boyfriend the truth but decided against it. She didn’t want to have to face the consequences.
On Thursday she drove to a nonprofit organization that provides Hispanics with health care and spotted Maritza Ramirez-Cruz. She was pregnant. The 23 year old had moved from Puerto Rico to join her childhood sweetheart, Christian Mercado. They had since had three children together. Maritza was carrying their fourth. Her due date was soon.
Morales-Rodriguez offered a ride home to Ramirez-Cruz, who foolishly accepted it. She told Ramirez-Cruz that she had to stop at her house to change shoes. The pregnant woman followed her inside to use the bathroom. When she came out of the bathroom Morales-Rodriguez was waiting for her with a baseball bat.
She hit the pregnant woman with the bat several times then choked her until she passed out. She then duct-taped Ramirez-Cruz’s feet and hands and put tape over her mouth and nose. Next, to get the baby she needed, she cut open the woman’s pregnant belly, trying to imitate a procedure she had seen on the Discovery Channel. When she pulled out the fetus she was very disappointed to find that the baby boy, which was exactly what she wanted, wasn’t breathing.
Thinking fast, Morales-Rodriguez smeared some of the dead woman’s blood on her thighs to make it look like she herself was bleeding from giving birth. She then called emergency services and reported that she had given birth to a stillborn child. She was taken to the hospital, but abandoned the dead baby and absconded before she could be fully examined.
Annette Morales-Rodriguez’s boyfriend now knows the truth, and he did leave her. She faces one count each of first-degree intentional homicide while armed, and first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child while armed. She faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted. She made a brief court appearance on Monday (10/10/11). She stood silently as the judge set her bail at $1 million. Records did not listed an attorney for her, and the public defender’s office could not be reached for comment.
Maria Garcia, 44, Morales-Rodriguez’s next door neighbor and self described best friend said, “I don’t know what she had in mind.”
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