Pocono News Section

Mother of Abandoned Newborn Arrested

Mother of Abandoned Newborn Arrested - Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 3:22PM EST

BERWICK, COLUMBIA COUNTY -- Police say they arrested 23-year-old Jennifer Killian Thursday morning and charged her with felony counts of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Police say she admitted to abandoning her newborn daughter outside her parents' home along Garfield Avenue in Berwick on Saturday.

Jennifer killian tells police she was hiding her pregnancy from her parents. She says she gave birth inside the bathroom on the first floor of her parents’ home. She says she planned on taking the baby to the berwick hospital, just blocks away, but she couldn’t let her parents see her with the newborn. She says she decided to put the baby in a plastic bag and drop her outside the window in between these houses. She says she planned to come out and take the baby to the hospital, but her father heard the cries from the back yard, and found the newborn first.

“Her fingers were blue, and her cries were real faint," Charles Drasher told us just hours after finding the newborn. "How could somebody rationalize doing this to their own flesh and blood?"

Little did Drasher know at the time it was his own flesh and blood. Hiis daughter, Jennifer Killian, tells police she hid the pregnancy from her parents because she already had a one-year-old daughter and knew she couldn’t take care of the newborn. She also says her parents threatened her, after having her first child.

On their front door today – a written statement, saying they weren’t wiling to talk.

Police were not available for comment Thursday but say the investigation continues.

Killian is in the Columbia County Prison. Her bail is set at $1,000,000.