Strongly suspected of the crime

Dead baby in garbage bag: mother in custody

According to the police, the child's body was discovered in a garbage bag in a hotel.

(Bild: Martina Münzer)

Two days after a dead newborn baby was found in a garbage bag in Vienna-Simmering, the mother, who is an urgent suspect, has been remanded in custody. 

The reasons given were the risk of committing the crime and the risk of absconding. According to the investigators, the 21-year-old confessed, but did not make any statements to the magistrate on the advice of her lawyer. The baby's body was discovered in a garbage bag on Monday. As a police spokesman explained, citing the preliminary autopsy report, the child was probably strangled. The suspect's partner remains at large. 

Boy was still alive after birth
The 21-year-old had stated that she had "grabbed the child by the neck and strangled it", a police spokesperson explained on Thursday. It was also clear after the autopsy that the boy was still alive after birth. The public prosecutor's office ordered the woman to be taken to a prison. 

Question of motive unanswered
The question of motive remains open. The role of the man has also not yet been clarified. Even before the staff made the heinous discovery on Monday, emergency services were called to the hotel because the 21-year-old Austrian woman was bleeding heavily in her abdomen. The woman was taken to a hospital in the Landstraße district. There, the doctors determined that the 21-year-old must have given birth shortly before. According to the reports, the young woman initially vehemently denied that she had given birth. Her partner also stated that he knew nothing about his partner's pregnancy.