Missouri Woman Gives Birth In Toilet, Lets Baby Drown, Charged With Murder

A Missouri woman was charged with murder Friday (May 16) in connection with the death of her newborn baby.

According to court documents, the woman, identified as 28-year-old Makuya Kambamba, worked at the Smithfield Foods plant where the incident took place. On May 6, she gave birth to the child in the toilet and then saw the newbown, that was face down in the water, moving.

Instead of taking the baby out, the woman, who was having labor contractions, sat back on the toilet and didn’t check on the baby for the next half an hour. The body was sent for autopsy, which revealed that the evidence was consistent with drowning.

Investigators said the woman “knowingly” allowed the baby to drown in the toilet. On May 15, the woman was taken into custody by the Kirksville Police Department and the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office. The woman was charged with first-degree and second-degree murder. She also faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death.

Kambamba was being held at the Daviess-Dekalb Regional Jail without bond.

The incident comes a month after a Pennsylvania teen left her newborn son on the back porch of a home minutes after giving birth. Sean Geraty, the home owner, stepped out of the house and noticed droplets of blood on the porch. He traced it to a pool of blood on a wooden extension and found a newborn baby wrapped in a towel inside a bag.

Following investigation, the newborn’s mother, identified as 18-year-old Cassandra Stitzer, was arrested. She admitted to abandoning the baby. The teen said that as soon as she started experiencing severe stomach pain, she stepped out of her home and drove her car for a while before giving birth in the front seat. The teen then wrapped the newborn in a towel and left the baby on the back porch of a home before driving back to her house. The teen was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.