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Woman Charged with Two Counts of Homicide in Murder of Mother and Unborn Son

Oct 12, 2011

By Dave Andrusko

Annette Morales-Rodriguez (center) is accused of slaying a Milwaukee woman and her unborn baby.

Brace yourself, this is a difficult story to read. Let me quote the first two sentences of an Associated Press (AP) story and then fill in some of the heart-wrenching details.

“A woman who faked a pregnancy and panicked as her supposed due date grew near attacked a pregnant mother with a baseball bat and cut her full-term fetus from her womb with an Exacto knife, killing the mother and baby, according to court documents filed Monday.

“Annette Morales-Rodriguez, 33, faces one count each of first-degree intentional homicide while armed and first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child while armed in the death of Maritza Ramirez-Cruz and the boy she was set to deliver next week. Morales-Rodriguez faces mandatory life in prison if convicted.”

Morales- Rodriguez made a brief appearance in court yesterday where her bail was set at $1 million.

According to the criminal complaint, Morales-Rodriguez lied to her boyfriend, telling him she was pregnant when she was unable to become pregnant. As her supposed due date approached, for two weeks she planned “to find a pregnant woman, take the baby and make it hers, the complaint said,” according to the AP. “On Thursday, she drove around a nonprofit organization that provides Latinos with health care and found Ramirez-Cruz.”

She offered Ramirez-Cruz, pregnant with her fourth child, a ride, according to the complaint, and drove her to Morales-Rodriguez’s house on the pretext that she needed to change shoes. She attacked Ramirez-Cruz and when Morales-Rodriguez  pulled the baby out he was not breathing.

She called police, said she had given birth to a stillborn baby, was taken to a hospital where she left before a full exam was completed.

“An autopsy the next day revealed that the baby wasn’t the product of a natural birth,” wrote the AP’s Todd Richmond. “Police returned to Morales-Rodriguez’s house that day and took her back to the hospital. An examination verified she hadn’t given birth and officers arrested her.”

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