Mubashra Uddin from Chicago hid her pregnancy from her parents.
AB Wire
A Pakistani American teenager from Chicago, Mubashra Uddin, 19, has been accused of throwing her infant daughter to her death from an eighth-floor window.
Prosecutors say Uddin hid her pregnancy and killed the baby because she feared her parents, who are conservative Muslims, would not approve, reported the Chicago Tribune.
Uddin gave birth to a full-term baby girl last month at the family’s eighth-floor apartment and dropped the baby out of a bedroom window as she heard her mother approaching, according to reports by CBS News and the Associated Press.
Uddin’s attorney, Adam Sheppard said family is supporting the teen, a straight-A student at Devry University, reports the Tribune.
Uddin was ordered held without bail on a first-degree murder charge, but didn’t attend that hearing because she was hospitalized.
A man found the newborn in the grass outside a high-rise apartment building Wednesday night, said Assistant State’s Attorney Patrick Turnock. The girl was still breathing, Turnock said, and the man alerted building security to call 911.
The baby died at a hospital from her injuries, according to Turnock. An autopsy found the baby’s death was a homicide caused by blunt-force trauma.
After the baby was found, police canvassed the area and learned from people they talked to that they thought Uddin might have been pregnant, prosecutors said. They also figured out that Uddin’s apartment was directly above where the infant was found.
When police went to Uddin’s family’s apartment, they found blood in several places in the bedroom and bathroom, as well as bloody sheets and bloody scissors, prosecutors said. When investigators interviewed her, Uddin at first denied she had anything to do with the infant but made “multiple admissions” on video, reported the Tribune.
Turnock said Uddin became pregnant by her boyfriend and told him and a friend after taking a pregnancy test, but didn’t tell her family because she knew her parents wouldn’t approve. Uddin wore clothes to help mask her pregnancy, Turnock said.
Uddin at first denied she had anything to do with the infant, but she made “multiple admissions” on video after investigators interviewed her, Turnock said.
Judge Peggy Chiampas said the circumstances of Uddin’s family would be considered in her case, reported CBS.
The Tribune reported Sheppard said that Uddin has a “contrite-type attitude” and is “a very humble person.”