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Nov. 21, 2018 / 6:22 PM GMT
By David K. Li
A California woman is accused of throwing her 2-month-old daughter out of a moving car in Bali before trying to commit suicide, Indonesian police said Wednesday.
Investigators were not immediately able to question Nicole Stasio, 32, because she was hospitalized for severe depression, South Denpasar police chief Nyoman Wiarajaya told The Associated Press. She has not been charged with a crime.
A tour guide and the car’s driver hadn’t noticed that Stasio’s baby was thrown from the car, police said, but they did witness the mom jumping out of their moving vehicle.
Villagers found the severely injured baby less than a mile from where Stasio leaped from the vehicle, officials told AP. The baby died about seven hours later at the same hospital where Stasio is being treated, authorities said.
Stasio came to Bali in July with her parents, police told AP. The parents stayed for about 10 days and Stasio remained on the island where she gave birth in September, according to police.
Wiarajaya said investigators have interviewed driver Wayan Siaja and tour guide Made Arimbawa, who have been with the woman and her family since they arrived.
“She refused to answer when they (the parents) asked about her baby’s father,” Wiarajaya told the wire service. “But she gave the impression that she was unmarried and her family preferred that she give birth to a child abroad, like wanting to avoid something.”
Siaja and Arimbawa told police they were taking Stasio and her baby to Bali’s airport on Tuesday night for a trip home to California, officials told AP. But Stasio changed her mind en route and told them to take her back to the popular tourist town of Ubud, when the baby went out of the car.