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Young Yoder mom accused of strangling newborn appears in court

KRDO

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Amy Grace Carr appeared in front of an El Paso County judge Thursday morning ahead of her scheduled murder trial.

Carr was 19 years old when investigators believe she strangled her newborn baby in January of 2021 just after giving birth outside her Yoder home, roughly 30 miles east of Colorado Springs.

Investigators say she tried to bury the child, but with the ground frozen, she couldn't dig very deep. Her mother, who had not been aware Carr was pregnant in the first place, found the child days later. At first, Carr told investigators the child was stillborn and she was afraid to tell her parents about her pregnancy.

When detectives looked into Carr's phone messages, they found conversations between Carr and a man who appeared to be the child's father. Carr texted things like they "might actually be done with this demon spawn," and that she was surprised how long it took to "strangle it before it even stopped breathing," calling the newborn a "strong lil' girl."

Carr's internet history showed she also searched Google for things like "How much alcohol is needed to harm a fetus" and searched Amazon for waist-trainers, which can sometimes be used to harm babies while still in the womb.

Carr is facing a first-degree murder charge for the death of her child and, if convicted, could spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Had Carr decided to bring the baby to any fire station or hospital in Colorado within 72 hours of giving birth, she would've likely faced no consequences for surrendering the infant.

"The Safe Haven Law legally allows a mother or father to abandon or surrender a newborn in hopes of preventing newborn abandonment, they can surrender it to a fire station or hospital or a standalone emergency room by handing it physically over to a staff member legally and anonymously, as long as the baby is healthy and unharmed within 72 hours," Whitney Vaughn of Colorado Safe Haven for Newborns said.

However, with Colorado weather, some children have died from exposure, so the law requires the person to physically hand that child over to someone, rather than leaving a baby outside, for example.

Carr has yet to enter a plea in her murder charge, but a judge did schedule her trial for the fall of 2022. She'll be back in court to enter her plea in May.

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