American teen arrested in Paris after newborn thrown from hotel window, dies at local hospital
Editor's Note: CNN & Sky News provided information used in this article.
PARIS (KTVZ) – An American teenager has been arrested in Paris, accused of fatally throwing her newborn baby out of a second-floor hotel window, prosecutors and French media say.
The young woman, not named by authorities, was taken to a hospital to undergo an operation after giving birth and was subsequently placed under police custody, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement, CNN reported.
Her newborn baby “was allegedly thrown out of the second-floor window of a hotel” in the 20th arrondissement of Paris on Monday, the prosecutor’s office said. “The newborn was taken to emergency care but did not survive.”
The mother, an American citizen, “was part of a group of young adults traveling in Europe,” the prosecutor’s office said, adding an investigation into the homicide of a minor has since been opened. The prosecutor’s office said it was possible the young woman could have been unaware of her pregnancy, or in denial about it.
A spokesperson for the mayor of the 20th arrondissement told CNN the baby was found alive in a trash can near the hotel and was rushed to the Paris children’s hospital, the Necker. The infant died at the hospital.
CNN said it has reached out to French police and the US State Department. The hospital where the woman was taken declined to comment.
The newborn, "with the umbilical cord" still attached, was thrown from an Ibis Style hotel, the French newspaper Le Parisien reported.
"The investigation is under way and the precise circumstances of this tragedy remain to be established," a police source told French magazine Paris Match, according to Sky News, a partner network to NBC News.
The child protection police unit has been tasked with investigating the case as a homicide of a minor under 15 years old, Sky News said
The incident is also being looked into as a possible "case of pregnancy denial," the prosecutor's office said.
This is a condition in which a woman is either unaware of or in denial about her pregnancy until labor.
The caretaker of the building opposite the Ibis hotel where the incident happened said she and her husband were awakened by the sound of sirens early on Monday morning.
“There were police cars and ambulances,” Maria, who declined to share her surname, told CNN, adding that police later knocked on her door, looking for eyewitnesses.
“We thought it might be gang-related, but when we learned what had happened, we were devastated,” she recalled.
Maria said she was shocked by what happened. “I’ve lived here for over 30 years, and it’s a quiet neighborhood with very few tourists. It’s so sad.”
