Prosecutor: Mom Can't Remember Where She Left Newborn

A Michigan judge revoked Melissa Mitin’s bond and ordered her held in jail until her murder trial begins. (Courtesy photo)

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A Michigan woman facing murder charges in the December 2013 death of an infant daughter told court authorities Tuesday she can’t remember where she left her new baby, a boy born last month.

Melissa Mitin, 25, of Okemos was free on $5,000 bond awaiting trial on the 2013 murder charges, but Ingham County Assistant Prosecutor Debra Rousseau argued her bond should be revoked after she allegedly admitted to a family court judge Tuesday that she “could not recall” where her month-old son is, the Lansing State Journal reports

Rousseau said the admission in Ingham County family court was “startling, to say the least.”

“We believe she is a danger to the community – and of course the most vulnerable members (of the community) are infants who can’t speak for themselves,” Rousseau argued.

Related: Police Seek Possible Link Between Mom Who ’Can’t Recall’ Baby’s Whereabouts and Dead Newborn Found in Dumpster.

Circuit Judge Jim Jamo revoked Mitin’s bond and ordered her held in the county jail until her yet-to-be scheduled trial.

The judge also granted Mitin’s attorney’s request for an examination at Michigan’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry to determine if the woman is competent to stand trial and can be held criminally responsible in her infant daughter’s death

Her claim that she didn’t know where the infant boy is raised “serious concerns about her psychological well-being,” defense attorney Frank Reynolds said.

Baby Died of Asphyxiation

Prosecutors allege that on Dec. 26, 2013, Mitin gave birth to a baby girl alone in a bathroom and placed her face down in a waste can. The placenta and umbilical cord were still attached. Mitin claims the baby cried, but then stopped breathing, but Dr. Joyce deJong, a forensic pathologist who examined the baby, said the newborn suffocated.

“You have an infant that’s born live that’s then placed in a trash can in a position where it can’t be able to breathe, that would account for the death,” deJong said, according to a WILX-TV report.

Mitin, her parents and sister were staying with friends in Okemos at the time because their own house lacked power after an ice storm. Mitin reportedly did not know she was pregnant until she delivered the baby, WUSA-TV reported last year.

The father of the baby born in December 2013 was a Michigan State University student who is reportedly living in another country. The father of the missing baby boy she gave birth to last month is unknown.

Mitin’s most recent pregnancy was confirmed during an examination in mid-December. An examination Tuesday showed she gave birth about three weeks ago, prompting the family court judge’s questions about the infant’s whereabouts.