The body of a dead fetus found in a teen's shopping bag after she was caught shoplifting was born alive.
According to the Associated Press, preliminary reports suggested the fetus may have been asphyxiated, but the cause of death was inconclusive. The New York City medical examiner's office will need weeks to perform more tests on the fetus to determine how it died.
The fetus was found when two 17-year-old girls were caught stealing from a Victoria's Secret in Midtown Manhattan. When the store's security team searched the girls' bags, they found the body of the dead fetus.
"The girl who had been carrying the bag containing the fetus told detectives she had delivered a day earlier and didn't know what to do, authorities said," AP reports. "Police believe she delivered at the other girl's house."
Both girls were arrested on petit larceny charges.
"She's a good girl. I can't believe she would do that," Zami Ford, the neighbor of the teen who alleges she miscarried the baby, told the New York Daily News. "Who the h*** would do that? That's sickening?"
The teen mother reportedly lives with two-year-old son and mother.
"She goes to school. She does what she has to do. She's no problem," Ford said. "We grew up together. I've known her since she was little. She was probably nervous and didn't know what to do. She would never hurt anyone."
Yvonne Sonera, 44, was shopping at the Victoria's Secret when she heard what happened. The Bronx speculated as to why the 17-year-old would carry the fetus with her.
"That's horrible," Sonera told the Daily News. "She must be going through a big depression. She must have been wondering how she was going to get rid of it."
The 17-year-old mother was taken to Bellevue Hospital for further evaluation.
