By all accounts the family of 17-year-old Jessica Lynn Brewster, a high school senior with a 4.0 grade-point average, had high expectations for her, and a pregnancy would be viewed as hampering her future. That is why, police allege, the Muskegon, Mich., teen hid her pregnancy from her mother. And when she gave birth last month in the bathroom at home, she allegedly smothered her newborn baby girl with a towel to silence her cries, according to the Daily Mail.
On Wednesday Brewster, who was arrested Monday, was charged with open murder, a combination of first- and second-degree murder under Michigan law, the report says. She is being held without bond.
Detective Kory Luker said in a sworn statement that the Muskegon High School senior “admitted” her connection to her child’s death, explaining that she did not want her mother to know about the pregnancy, MLive reports.
The baby’s body was discovered this week by a janitor at Brewster’s grandmother’s senior living complex. At first he thought the infant was a doll. The teen is accused of putting the baby’s body in a plastic bag, taking it to the complex and burying it in a shallow grave behind the building, the report says.
Police say the teen is believed to have acted alone and has no criminal history.
Read more at the Daily Mail.