Inset, center: Jessica M. Mauthe (Armstrong County Jail). Background: Images from inside the home where Mauthe allegedly hid four dead babies (WPXI).
New charges have been filed against a 39-year-old woman in Pennsylvania after yet another dead infant was found in the home she had been renting — the fourth deceased baby authorities recovered from inside the residence.
Jessica Mauthe, who was taken into custody last weekend, is now facing additional charges, including one count each of criminal homicide and involuntary manslaughter. As Law&Crime previously reported, Mauthe earlier this week was charged with one count of criminal homicide and one count of abuse of a corpse after the owner of the property discovered the baby wrapped in a towel and stuffed in a garbage bag in a bedroom closet. The three additional children”s bodies were found hidden in the attic.
Brent Flanigan, the owner of the home in the 100 block of Oak Avenue in Cadogan Township, spoke to Pittsburgh NBC affiliate WPXI about Mauthe, saying he evicted her from the property last month for not paying rent.
“After her dad passed, the money stopped coming in,” Flanigan told the station. “I don’t know that she’s ever physically paid me the rent. She would coax churches into paying the rent.”
He said that he and a worker went to the home on Sept. 13 after being informed that Mauthe had left several cats behind, which is when they made the grisly discovery.
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“We went in to start cleaning, and that’s when we found the bag,” Flanigan said. “It was wrapped up in three or four different garbage bags, tied tight. The smell was horrendous. We opened it up, and there were towels in there. My worker and I, we peeled the towels back with a stick, and we could see there was just rotting, decomposing something in there and I knew it wasn’t an animal.”
The coroner was called to the home and confirmed that the bag contained the remains of a deceased infant, leading to the involvement of the state police. A subsequent search of the home initially resulted in two more dead babies being found in the attic.
The Pennsylvania State Police on Thursday confirmed the discovery of a fourth baby’s body in the home.
In an interview with police, Mauthe said she gave birth to all of the children in her bathroom, with the first one being born about six years ago, The Tribune-Review reported, citing to the criminal complaint. Mauthe claimed that after giving birth to the first victim, she passed out on top of the child and when she awoke, it was dead.
She reportedly claimed that the second child was stillborn and never made a sound. However, she allegedly admitted to intentionally killing the third child about a year ago after giving birth on the toilet.
“The child remained in the toilet for several minutes, during this time, she could hear the child making noises,” police wrote, per Pittsburgh ABC affiliate WTAE. “Mauthe removed the child from the toilet, wrapped a towel around the infant’s entire body, where it remained until it stopped making noises.”
The fourth deceased child was not mentioned in the complaint.
Authorities said Mauthe, who has two adult children, never attempted to get any of the babies medical attention and, following their deaths, did not make any effort to contact law enforcement.
Police said the Indiana County Coroner’s Office was performing autopsies on all four of the bodies recovered from the home.
Mauthe is currently being held in the Armstrong County Jail without bond. She is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 30.
