14 DAY TRIAL // Police have found a fetus in the bag of a teenage girl caught shoplifting at a Manhattan Victoria's Secret store.
Two girls were stopped by guards before leaving the Herald Square store. According to CBS New York, one of the 17-year-old shoppers had a child with her. She had stolen underwear and cosmetics from the Broadway and W. 34th Street location.
Guards smelled a foul odor coming from the bag and she admitted to have a dead newborn inside.
Tiana Rodriguez, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and Francis Estevez, of Glendale, Queens were charged with petty larceny.
An autopsy was conducted, and it revealed that Rodriguez's child was born alive. She originally told police that she miscarried after six months.
However, tests showed that she carried the baby for eight months, and it weighed 8.5 pounds (3.9 kg).
The New York Daily News reports that the cause of death is also being investigated. Officials will have more information after two weeks.
Rodriguez's Facebook photos do not suggest that she is pregnant, and her neighbors and friends are not aware of the issue.
“I couldn’t really tell because she’s a little heavyset, so I wouldn’t know if she was pregnant, pregnant or that’s just her,” neighbor Ramon Acosta told Sanchez.
“I was in shock. [...] I caught goosebumps and all that. It’s like, come on, that’s a young, innocent girl to my eyes,”
The teenager already has a 2-year-old son. On Wednesday, she posted a message about being in pain and getting period cramps on Facebook.
“I hope she didn’t do nothing to the baby. That’s all. I hope she didn’t do it,” neighbor Gloria Pierce expresses.
“I don’t believe she would choke her own child. [...] We’re neighbors; we grew up together. [...] Tiona is not that type. She is a loving girl,” neighbor Zami Ford adds.