A Milton man buried a dead newborn in his back yard after learning his wife’s 14-year-old ward secretly gave birth in their home and hid the baby in a dresser drawer, borough police charged Wednesday.
Donan Antonio Maradiaga-Orellana, 29, the husband of the girl’s guardian, was not the baby’s father, but dug the shallow grave, Milton Patrolman Kurt R. Henrie wrote in an arrest affidavit.
Maradiaga-Orellana faces misdemeanor charges of criminal conspiracy to conceal a child’s death, abuse of a corpse, hindering apprehension or prosecution and tampering with physical evidence.
Unable to post $75,000 in cash for bail, he was imprisoned in the Northumberland County Jail.
The baby, which had reached full-term, was born early Sunday, the girl told police, according to the affidavit.
Police said the girl went to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville on Monday evening seeking treatment for stomach pain and nausea. She was accompanied by her guardian and a family friend.
The girl reported miscarrying to the hospital staff, Henrie wrote in the affidavit, and told them she hid the body in the bedroom.
Police say the guardian called Maradiaga-Orellana, who drove to the hospital, picked up the family friend and went home with the friend to search for the baby.
They “found a full-term infant female wrapped in clothing inside a (dresser) drawer in the closet of (the girl’s) bedroom,” the affidavit says.
The infant was “obviously deceased with some kind of wound on the baby’s face.”
“They moved the body from the bedroom to the kitchen and wrapped the body up, unsure of what to do,” Henrie wrote. Maradiaga-Orellana called his wife who asked him to text her pictures of the infant, which he refused to do “because he didn’t want her to see it.”
The family friend left. Maradiaga-Orellana disabled a backyard security camera and began digging the grave without telling anyone, according to the affidavit.
About 4 a.m. Tuesday, Maradiaga-Orellana called his wife to say he needed to bury the infant because the body had begun to decompose. At that point, he texted pictures to his wife, who showed them to hospital staff, who called police.
Another police officer went to the home and met with the girl’s biological mother, who showed him the bedroom and pointed to the back yard when asked where the baby was.
“In the back yard, a freshly overturned patch of earth was seen,” Henrie wrote.
The officer went to the hospital and interviewed the mother, who said she delivered the baby herself early Sunday, according to the affidavit.
“The infant was alive at the time of birth but was having respiratory issues” the girl told the officer. She also said she dropped the baby while holding it, according to the affidavit.
Northumberland County Coroner James Kelley said an autopsy on the baby is scheduled for Thursday morning.
More than a decade ago, Kelley fought for passage of the state's Safe Haven Act. The law allows women unable to care for a newborn to drop off babies no older than 28 days at any hospital without getting in trouble.
"All child death cases are extremely disheartening, but when you know the Safe Haven Act can save a baby, that makes it a little more disheartening," Kelley said in an interview.
