You know how baby dump pushers are always yabbering about how they just need more $$$$$ to spread the word around to parents that its brave, courageous, and loving to abandon your “unwanted babies ” under the safe haven no blame no shame-no name scheme they’ve set up? Well, here’s an interesting story out of Brazos County, Texas.
Last week Susan Chiniewicz, 35, was charged with 1st degree murder in the death of her newborn son whose body was found last October in a trashcan at the Texas World Speedway south of College Station. What makes this case noteworthy is that Chiniewicz is a model housewife, mom, newspaper reporter and editor who knew all about Texas’ Baby Moses Law. Brandy Moore, former owner of the The Colony Courier-Leader, where Chiniewicz worked says, “She’s done stories on that before, so she knows. Something must have been going on to stress her out that much.”
Chiniewicz doesn’t fit the profile of the “desperate” and “frightened” poster mom. Besides being a journalist , she reportedly owns a editorial service and is a very active member of The Colony Chamber of Commerce where she’s an “Ambassador Captain. ” Oh, and she’s married with 3 kids. The family wastat the speedway, in fact, when she gave birth in the bathroom to the 6 pound full term “Baby Joseph.” Chiniewicz initially told police that she’d suffered from a heavy period and may have “made a mess” in the restroom.” Ouch! The autopsy indicated that the baby was born alive and died from suffocation, environmental exposure, and neglect.
On the off chance you think that Chiniewicz didn’t now she was pregnant… she told her husband, who apparently had noticed “the bump” that she had a medical problem that causes weight gain. And none of the neighbors or the Chamber of Commerce had a clue.
Chiniewicz is being held on $3 million bond.
Stories like this must drive Geanie Morrison, John Richardson and the rest of the Texas Baby Moses gang to head for Nuevo Laredo.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
yasus. kinda destroys the profile stats of who kills their own babies, now don’t it? scary to think about how many human-like objects are out there acting successful. (btw, linked you to my blog.)
My goodness!
It only goes to show.
(So THAT’s what the Geanie looks like when it’s back in the bottle)
Puts paid to the idea that women will choose legal abandonment over infanticide. Proves what we have been saying along, namely that there is a difference between a woman who will kill her newborn and a woman who will give it to someone else to care for. We can reach the later group with encouragement to place the child for adoption with a licensed agency. Sadly, the first group will remain harder to reach.
“and editor who knew all about Texas’ Baby Moses Law. Brandy Moore, former owner of the The Colony Courier-Leader, where Chiniewicz worked says, “She’s done stories on that before, so she knows. Something must have been going on to stress her out that much.”
I knew both Brandy and Susan, and I think Brandy spoke out of turn. Though the DA tried, they were unable to track back to specific “Baby Moses” articles that Susan wrote while on staff at the Colony Courier (the name of the paper before the Leader took it over). Susan may have known about the Baby Moses laws, but there’s no official proof anything has been published under her name, so please be careful about spreading rumors about that.
Having said that, it stunned me that Susan would have done this. But looking back on this, there were some issues in her behavior over the years that could have pointed to this.
Obviously, the courts agreed, as she’s now been indicted for the murder.
It’s such a very sad situation. I didn’t know her well but I was acquainted with both Susan and her husband through motor-cycle racing. We had some conversations while watching the racing. I have to be honest she didn’t apppear to me to be one who would contemplate this dreadful action….but then we never really know what anyone will do in any given situation. Does anyone know when the trial is to be held?
Her trial began this morning (Nov 05 2007) in Bryan, Brazos Co, Texas.
Thanks. I haven’t seen any news stories on the trial, but if I do I’ll post an update.
Updated Wednesday, November 07, 2007 2:11 AM
‘Baby Joseph’ murder trial begins
By CRAIG KAPITAN
Eagle Staff Writer
Nine months before giving birth in a public rest room and dumping her newborn in the trash, Susan Jeannie Chiniewicz was having an affair, District Attorney Bill Turner told jurors Tuesday as testimony started in the 36-year-old’s murder trial.
Her husband — who she already had three children with — had undergone a vasectomy, making it unlikely he could conceive another child, Turner said during opening statements.
So when Chiniewicz found herself pregnant again, Turner said, the suburban Dallas resident decided to deny the child’s existence — wearing baggy clothes, telling some acquaintances she had a fibroid tumor and telling her husband that her belly’s growth was the result of an ovarian cyst.
“It is clear that Baby Joseph was unwanted from the start, was an embarrassment from the start,” Turner said. “He was a threat to her lifestyle until his death.”
Defense attorneys Jim James and Cameron Reynolds declined Tuesday to immediately give an opening statement for Chiniewicz, a respected business owner who was active in The Colony’s chamber of commerce. They will have another opportunity to outline their case after prosecutors finish calling witnesses.
Brazos County investigators dubbed the child “Baby Joseph” after responding to the Texas World Speedway south of College Station in October 2005. Janitor Jose Tirado found the 7-pound infant in a large trash bin as he was cleaning rest rooms following a weekend motorcycle-racing event, he testified.
Gruesome photos of the infant — waste paper strewn around his curled, lifeless body as he lay in a black plastic garbage bag outside the rest room — were displayed to jurors as Tirado was called to testify.
“I felt it was too heavy,” Tirado said through a Spanish interpreter as he stepped down from the witness stand to demonstrate reaching for the bottom of the garbage bag that day. “I felt something soft. I thought I should check it out [so] I moved the papers and I saw the child.”
Prosecutors also showed jurors during Tirado’s testimony a photo of a nearby toilet with what appeared to be lines of dried blood running down its front.
Chiniewicz was indicted for capital murder, which is punishable by life in prison or lethal injection. However, prosecutors opted Tuesday to instead charge her with first-degree felony murder, which carries a punishment range of between five and 99 years or life in prison.
If she is found guilty and has no prior felony convictions, Chiniewicz could be eligible for probation. Prosecutors deferred comment until after the trial as to why they decided to pursue the lesser charge.
During his opening statement, Turner outlined what he called the short, tragic life of Baby Joseph and asked jurors to put themselves in Chiniewicz’s state of mind — remembering her constant denials.
“Babies don’t just appear in trash barrels,” Turner said. “They don’t have the strength to get there. Somehow, they have to get there. They have to depend on an adult.”
Investigators began focusing on Chiniewicz about a week after the child was discovered, when she called a Sheriff’s Office dispatcher. She wanted them to know that she had been bleeding heavily from her period that day and might have made a mess in the bathroom, dispatcher Sherry Jones testified.
“I was kind of like, ‘What?'” Jones told jurors. “I asked her what this had to do with the baby. She said, ‘Nothing, really.'”
The woman then asked if authorities knew who the baby belonged to before hanging up, Jones said, explaining that she felt the conversation was strange enough to pass it on to investigators.
When contacted by detectives, Chiniewicz continued to deny having a baby, prosecutors said. But she changed her story seven months later, they said, when she was confronted with a DNA test proving she was the mother. That’s when, Turner said, the woman “unveiled plan B” — stating that she had been raped and the baby was born dead.
Turner and fellow prosecutor Andrea James said Tuesday that the child was born with group B strep, an infection that can be life-threatening for newborns. But it is treatable by a physician, they said.
They called to the witness stand officials with Texas World Speedway and the Central Motorcycle Roadracing Association, both of whom said there were multiple paramedics and volunteers at the track that day who could have helped anyone experiencing a medical emergency. Prosecutors also called Chiniewicz’s gynecologist and several medical professionals who said she didn’t have any doctor’s visits for the duration of 2005, when she would have been pregnant.
Prosecutors told jurors during opening statements that later in the trial they will hear from a pathologist who will testify that the baby was born alive and could have survived.
According to the indictment, which was read aloud to jurors just before opening statements Tuesday, Chiniewicz is accused of murder by either smothering the child, allowing it to drown in the toilet or abandoning it alive in the trash — where it might have succumbed to the elements — instead of seeking medical attention.
“He had to be dependent on the person with the moral and legal obligation to get him that help,” Turner said. “Gulping, gasping for air, Baby Joseph died in the hands of his mother in a rest room.”
Testimony is expected to continue at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the 85th District Courtroom. Prosecutors told Judge J.D. Langley on Tuesday afternoon that their first witness of the day will be David Bayliss, a chamber of commerce member in The Colony who prosecutors say is the father of the child.
• Craig Kapitan’s e-mail address is [email protected].
I am from the area and here is the article from our local news paper…
Susan is suppose to be released from jail today 10-19-2009 after serving only 2 years for murdering her baby boy. How sad his life was valued so little.