CONWAY - A 16-year-old Surfside Beach girl accused of burying her stillborn baby last December, pleaded guilty to a charge of Unauthorized Removal of a Body during a court hearing Friday morning in Conway.
The teenager admitted in court that she gave birth to the stillborn baby in May of 2009, and later buried the child's body in a neighborhood of Hwy. 544.
"My client found herself in a unique and tragic situation," Defense attorney Bert Von Herrmann told 15th Circuit Court Judge Ronald Norton. "She panicked and didn't know what to do and she understands what she did was in violation of the law."
Judge Norton agreed to a recommendation made by a Department of Juvenile Justice representative that the teen be placed on six month probation with a mental health assessment as well as a medication management.
Deputy Horry County Coroner Tony Hendrick says reports from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston show the baby was less than 20 weeks old and the gender of the baby could not be determined.
The Horry County Police Department arrested the teen Dec 7 after her mother contacted them once she retrieved the child's remains from the burial location.
"In this case the one thing that was overlooked by an awful lot of people was the need and the necessity to have this young girl's mental health and all the evaluation and the support that this child needs to lead a healthy life,” said Herrmann, “She’s 16-years-old, she's got a long life a head of her.”
Herrmann said that the teen may be home schooled or transferred to another high school because rumors and the innuendos perpetuated by this situation would make it difficult for her to lead a normal life.
“She's an honor roll student with obviously an 88 percentile IQ rating so you know she's an outstanding student and very intelligent,” Herrmann said.
"A lot of times for a young girl the fear of telling her parents is actually worst than what it ends being,” said Assistant 15th Circuit Solicitor Alicia Richardson,” She would not have been arrested and all the situation that she did but by not telling she put her own life in danger.”
Richardson said that a Safe Haven law will protect a woman who brings their baby to a hospital within thirty days of birth, which immunes the mother from prosecution.
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