Woman Requests Charges are Dropped for Alleged Murder and Burial of Newborn

CARLISLE, OH. – A 20-year-old Ohio woman who allegedly killed her newborn and buried her in the family’s backyard requested that all charges against her are dropped.

Brooke Skylar Richardson was 18-years-old when she found out she was pregnant. She was planning to attend college when she learned of her pregnancy. It is believed that Richardson did not want to be a single mother in college. According to court testimony, Richardson, after becoming aware of her pregnancy, she did not return to the doctor for prenatal care.

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Authorities became aware of the possible crime in the summer of 2017, when a doctor who had seen Richardsom reported that she told him that she recently delivered a stillborn baby. With that knowledge, the police responded to the home where Richardson lived with her family, to search the property.

The remains of the newborn baby girl was found in a shallow grave in the backyard. Although the baby had numerous fractures to her skull, Richardson’s defense attorney says that the baby was stillborn. In addition, he said that the full term newborn did not meet the legal criteria to be considered a child. Autopsy reports say that the newborn baby girl was born alive and was full term.

Her defense attorney claims that since the prosecution witness initially said that the body of the infant was burned before it was buried. The claim was later recanted leading her attorney to believe that was grounds for dismissing all charges. The prosecution argued that regardless, the substantiality of evidence proving that Richardson killed the infant and buried her body was enough to uphold her charges.

Richardson is facing charges of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, gross abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and child endangerment, all to which she pleaded not guilty.

Her family says that they were not aware of her pregnancy. A photo taken for Richardson’s prom shows her when she was already full term, with little to no evidence of pregnancy.