Corpse abandonment charge dropped in child murder case
A judge sustained a motion by the defense team for a woman charged with murder, allowing one of the charges against her to be dropped.
Emily Usnick faces murder, child endangerment, and drug charges related to the 2009 death of a newborn child. Thursday’s hearing led to the charge of abandoning a corpse to be dropped. Her team filed the motion, claiming that charge was filed outside the three-year statute of limitation.
According to court documents, in 2009, an informant told investigators about the location of a fugitive in St. Elizabeth. The informant also mentioned there were children in the home and that the informant feared for the children’s safety.
When police went to the home, they reported finding drugs, including prescription pills and methamphetamine, and drug-related items. They also searched a car registered to Usnick at the property, and found a container inside. Usnick reportedly told officers the container didn’t belong to her.
Inside the container, authorities found the body of a baby girl wrapped in plastic; the umbilical cord was still attached. A Boone County medical examiner determined the child was a “viable birth” who’d had methamphetamine in her blood.
According to police, Usnick originally denied knowing anything about a child. Later at a hospital, she apparently told a doctor she didn’t know if the baby was alive or not.
During a later interview, police say Usnick confessed to giving birth to a baby about two-and-a-half weeks before the body was found. Usnick reportedly said she never went to a doctor during her pregnancy and hid it from others. Police said she also confessed to drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, taking sleeping pills and using meth during the pregnancy.
Court documents say Usnick claimed she intended to give the baby, who she named Hannah Eden Usnick, up for adoption, but the birth came quickly. After giving birth, Usnick apparently put the baby in a trash can, and panicked when she didn’t see the baby moving. Police said Usnick then put the baby in a trash bag, put the bag in a container, and put the container in her car.
