Undertow
07-23-2008, 12:29 AM
http://www./news/us_world/2008/07/20/2008-07-20_pittsburgh_baby_thief_faces_slay_charges.html
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AILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, July 20th 2008, 6:10 PM
Andrea Curry-Demus said she paid $1,000 for a baby allegedly cut from a teen's womb. KDKA-TV/
The Pittsburgh woman with a history of baby-snatching who turned up at a local hospital with a newborn baby allegedly cut from a teenager's womb was charged Sunday.
Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, faces homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping counts for allegedly butchering 18-year-old Kia Johnson on Thursday, then taking her baby, authorities said.
When tests proved the baby wasn't hers, Curry-Demus - who served time in prison for stealing a baby in 1990 - told police that she paid someone $1,000 for the newborn.
Johnson's body was found at Curry-Demus's apartment Friday with her wrists bound with duct tape and head covered inplastic. Her abdomen and uterus had been slashed, and her placenta was lying nearby.
The teen was positively identified through dental records late Saturday, but an autopsy did not determine whether she was alive or dead when the baby was taken, authorities said.
Her family told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that she had expected to give birth July 30.
Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams told The Associated Press that the baby is "apparently doing well."
Police said Johnson and Curry-Demus, who had been pregnant herself but had a miscarriage last month, likely met while visiting different inmates at a jail.
In 1990, Curry-Demus pleaded guilty to stabbing a woman in a plot to steal her child. A day later, she took a 3-week-old baby girl from a Pittsburgh hospital. The baby was unharmed, and Curry-Demus served about seven years in prison.
Curry-Demus's neighbors said she had had a baby shower recently, but relatives still weren't convinced the woman was having a child.
"I just had a feeling that she wasn't pregnant," her sister-in-law Stephanie Epps said. "She would never let you touch her stomach, and pregnant women let you do that."
************************************************** ****
AILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, July 20th 2008, 6:10 PM
Andrea Curry-Demus said she paid $1,000 for a baby allegedly cut from a teen's womb. KDKA-TV/
The Pittsburgh woman with a history of baby-snatching who turned up at a local hospital with a newborn baby allegedly cut from a teenager's womb was charged Sunday.
Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, faces homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping counts for allegedly butchering 18-year-old Kia Johnson on Thursday, then taking her baby, authorities said.
When tests proved the baby wasn't hers, Curry-Demus - who served time in prison for stealing a baby in 1990 - told police that she paid someone $1,000 for the newborn.
Johnson's body was found at Curry-Demus's apartment Friday with her wrists bound with duct tape and head covered inplastic. Her abdomen and uterus had been slashed, and her placenta was lying nearby.
The teen was positively identified through dental records late Saturday, but an autopsy did not determine whether she was alive or dead when the baby was taken, authorities said.
Her family told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that she had expected to give birth July 30.
Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams told The Associated Press that the baby is "apparently doing well."
Police said Johnson and Curry-Demus, who had been pregnant herself but had a miscarriage last month, likely met while visiting different inmates at a jail.
In 1990, Curry-Demus pleaded guilty to stabbing a woman in a plot to steal her child. A day later, she took a 3-week-old baby girl from a Pittsburgh hospital. The baby was unharmed, and Curry-Demus served about seven years in prison.
Curry-Demus's neighbors said she had had a baby shower recently, but relatives still weren't convinced the woman was having a child.
"I just had a feeling that she wasn't pregnant," her sister-in-law Stephanie Epps said. "She would never let you touch her stomach, and pregnant women let you do that."