Mom Tried To Drown Baby After Giving Birth In McDonald's Restroom: Prosecutors

A California woman has been accused of attempted murder for trying to flush her newborn after delivering the baby in a toilet in McDonald’s in Redwood City, last week, according to San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Sarah Lockner, 25, was working in the fast food restaurant in the evening shift on Sept. 4 when she told her co-workers that she was having stomach pains, reports said. Lockner made multiple trips to the bathroom citing the reason. According to the Daily Journal, Lockner stayed back even after her manager suggested she could go home. She stayed in the restroom even after finishing her shift.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe claimed that when one female employee went to check on her, she found Lockner in a closed stall in the restroom with blood on the floor. Lockner had told the woman she was having a heavy menstrual cycle, Daily Post reported. Another employee at the restaurant who went to inspect her peeked over the door of the stall to find her holding a new born baby over the toilet seat.

The baby boy was held by Lockner face-down in the toilet and was pressed into the water in the pot, Wagstaffe said. Lockner requested the employee to not call the police. However, the latter did not heed and stepped down to get help.

The employee said she heard Lockner use the flush of the toilet, reported Daily Journal. When police and paramedics arrived at the scene, they found the baby was not breathing and they could not find a pulse. Lockner reportedly said she and her boyfriend were unaware that she was pregnant and the baby had come as a shock for her.

The newborn was taken to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and placed in a medical induced coma. Despite medical professionals’ initial worry that the child would not live, the baby boy has since been taken off life support and is expected to survive under care, said prosecutors. It is not yet known if he has sustained any brain damage. Child Protective Services is trying to determine if there was any family who could take care of the child, Wagstaffe said.

The mother has been charged with attempted murder causing great bodily injury and child abuse resulting in great bodily injury. A lawyer was appointed by the court to fight for Lockner who is being held in jail on $11 million and is assigned a date in the court on Sept. 18.

In a similar case last year, 22-year-old Ashley Hautzenrader from Iowa was charged with child endangerment and abandonment of a dependent person when she threw her newborn baby in a trash can after trying to flush him down in a hospital toilet. Reports said Hautzenrader did not know she was pregnant and delivered the baby in a bathroom in the hospital. When the baby did not cry, she assumed it was a still-born and attempted to flush it. Hospital employees later found the baby in a pillowcase in the trash can.