Taipei, April 9 (CNA) A newborn baby found dead in front of a deserted residence in Budai Township, Chiayi County last week was alive when it was abandoned, while the exact cause of death is still being confirmed, prosecutors said.
The Chiayi District Prosecutors Office said an autopsy conducted Wednesday found the newborn boy was a live birth weighing 2.523 kilograms and did not suffer from any congenital diseases.
The results of a toxicology report and microscopic examination are needed to determine the cause of death, the office said.
Prosecutors said the boy’s mother and her husband, who is in prison, have a 1-year-old child together, whom she had given to her parents to take care of in Budai while she went to work in southern Taiwan to support the family.
Last July, the mother found out she was pregnant and returned to her parents’ house in Budai, where she tried to conceal the pregnancy from them and did not go for any prenatal care checkups, prosecutors said.
On March 29, the mother gave birth to a boy, and not knowing what to do, brought him to a deserted house in the area and left him there, prosecutors said.
At some point after abandoning the baby, the mother came back to the house at night and found that he had died. She then cleaned him and placed him in a cardboard box in front of the house, where he was reported to the police and found on April 2.
Police located and arrested the mother the following day.
At the time, prosecutors filed a motion to detain the mother, arguing that she could try to flee and should also be placed in custody for her own safety, due to her apparent emotional instability during questioning.
The Chiayi District Court rejected the request, however, saying that given the mother’s poor finances and “strong bonds” with her young daughter and parents, there is no concern that she would flee.
The court also said the mother had confessed during questioning and that the Code of Criminal Procedure generally prohibits detaining a mother who has given birth in the past two months unless it is absolutely necessary.
The court ordered her freed without bail.
In its statement Wednesday, the prosecutors’ office said it was considering charging the mother with abandonment leading to death, a crime punishable by 7 years to life imprisonment.
Depending a confirmation of the circumstances surrounding the boy’s death, she could also possibly be charged with causing the death of a child “under unavoidable circumstances” immediately after birth.
That crime is punishable by a prison term of 6 months to 5 years, the office said.
