Megan Staude appears in court with attorney Jill Eimermann on April 24, 2023 (KCAU).
An Iowa woman will hear her fate next week some two years after she allegedly murdered and discarded her newborn with the help of her father.
Megan K. Staude, 28, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in July as part of a deal with prosecutors. She was initially facing a first-degree murder charge. Now she”s facing 50 years behind bars when she is sentenced on Sept. 22, per records. Her father, 67-year-old Rodney Staude, still stands accused of first-degree murder. He also has a court date on Sept. 22 with a potential trial date of Oct. 15.
Rodney Staude had issues with his competency to stand trial last year but was ruled competent in August, per local NBC affiliate WHO.
The investigation began on March 8, 2023, when the Norwalk Police Department received a call from someone concerned about the safety of a child. The next day, cops recovered the dead newborn along a snowy road in the 5300 block of Delaware Street in Warren County. Investigators determined Megan Staude gave birth in late February 2023 and put the baby in a box and ignored the boy’s cries for two days.
The Staudes then allegedly put the infant in a trash bag — while he was still alive. Prosecutors say they discarded the trash bag in a ditch along the road.
Local CBS affiliate KCCI reported that Megan Staude’s co-workers were the ones who raised those concerns that day. They noticed that she was no longer pregnant and were suspicious — and at least one neighbor was shocked, but not surprised.
“Honestly, I was pretty appalled. Not really surprised though, just cause the vibe they gave,” Chris Hentschel reportedly told KCCI. “They were kinda weird.”
The report noted that the residence where Megan Staude gave birth was considered “unsafe to occupy.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, investigators allege that Rodney Staude helped his daughter abandon the victim in a ditch, rather than bring the baby to a Safe Haven, as defined by Iowa law:
The Safe Haven Act is a law that allows parents — or another person who has the parent’s authorization — to leave an infant up to 90 days old at a hospital or health care facility without fear of prosecution for abandonment. A parent may also contact 911 and relinquish physical custody of an infant up to 90 days old to a first responder of the 911 call. More than 50 children have been declared safe havens since the Iowa law was enacted in 2002. All states have Safe Haven laws, although provisions differ.
WHO IS A SAFE HAVEN?
A Safe Haven is an institutional health facility – such as a hospital or health care facility or a first responder who responds to the 911 telephone call.
According to the law – an “institutional health facility” means:
A “hospital” as defined in Iowa Code section 135B.1, including a facility providing medical or health services that is open twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week and is a hospital emergency room, or
A “health care facility” as defined in Iowa Code section 135C.1 means a residential care facility, a nursing facility, an intermediate care facility for persons with mental illness, or an intermediate care facility for persons with an intellectual disability.
According to the law, “first responder” means an emergency medical care provider, a registered nurse staffing an authorized service program under section 147A.12, a physician assistant staffing an authorized service program under section 147A.13, a fire fighter, or a peace officer as defined in section 801.4.
In a previous phone interview with Law&Crime, Norwalk Police Chief Greg Staples said that it has been a “difficult” and “emotional investigation” for all involved.
“Luckily justice is being served for the baby who didn’t have any say-so in what happened to him,” Staples said, crediting officers who “buckled down and solved a case of this magnitude so quickly.”
Staples said that a cadaver dog named Montana, with the search and rescue group Iowa SAR K9, found the baby covered in snow.
“Safe Haven laws are there for a reason,” Staples emphasized. “It is a shame that because the Safe Haven laws weren’t used in this case we have the death of a newborn and two people in jail charged with the most serious crime that there is.”
The police chief hoped that shining a light on this tragic case will ensure that nothing like it will happen again.
“If there’s one thing that’s good that comes out of this investigation it’s that someone pregnant out there will see this story and their baby will have a life to live unlike this baby,” Staples said.
Matt Naham contributed to this report.
