(BRISTOL, Conn.) — A Connecticut man was charged Friday with helping his girlfriend dispose of a stillborn baby boy whose body was found inside a plastic bag in a reservoir in March.State police also charged Benjamin Edgerly, 21, of Bristol, with helping to conceal the boy’s birth. He was released on a promise to appear in court. His attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
The mother, 19, told state police she “knew something was off” after giving birth at her grandparent’s home on March 13, an arrest warrant says.
“The baby’s umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck; he wasn’t crying, his lips were bluish and his skin a slight purple,” the woman told police, according to the warrant. “I panicked. I had done this completely alone.”
On March 19, she put the body in a white trash bag and into Edgerly’s book bag, the warrant says. Edgerly allegedly told police he threw the bag into a reservoir just before midnight on March 20.
The infant’s body was discovered the next morning in the reservoir in Harwinton, a town about 24 miles (39 kilometers) west of Hartford.
Edgerly and the mother told Bristol police what happened after learning that the body was found, the warrant says.
An autopsy confirmed the baby had been a stillborn. DNA matched the baby to the mother, but not to Edgerly, according to the warrant.