Video: Mother of dead infant admits to hiding baby

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LACEY, Wash. - Prosecutors say a 29-year-old Lacey woman admitted to giving birth and trying to hide a living baby that eventually died in her Lacey home Sunday.

Jessica Wemhaner is being held on $250,000 bail. She faces a charge of manslaughter in the first degree.

In court documents, investigators wrote: "she recalled holding the baby in the bathroom, against her chest, in her arms. She stated that she wrapped the baby in a bath towel and placed it under the sink."

Sunday afternoon doctors say she told a different story. When she went to Providence St. Peter Hospital, bleeding and feeling faint, a doctor determined Wemhaner had recently given birth.

According to the doctor, Wemhaner denied she was even pregnant. 

By that afternoon - at 5:07 pm - the doctor called 9-1-1 saying there likely was a baby at the couple's home, and that it could possibly be alive.

KING

A Thurston County judge is holding Jessica Wemhaner on $250,000 bail.

A Lacey police officer arrived nearly an hour later, but it wasn't until 9:07 p.m., four hours after the initial call, that detectives entered the home with a search warrant and found the dead baby girl. Detectives say they found the 7-pound 7-ounce girl unconscious.

The woman's husband told police he was asleep when his wife gave birth and hid the baby.

Investigators do not think he knew his wife was pregnant.

It is not clear why she may have hidden the pregnancy from him.