A 31-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman were arrested this week in Iowa for allegedly killing their infant in a bathtub seconds after the child was born. Let’s learn more Who are Brandon Thoma and Taylor Blaha and about this case in detail.
CASE KEY POINTS
- Brandon Thoma, 31, and Taylor Blaha, 24, drowned their infant son in the bathtub.
- Cops noticed they had searched for how to cause an abortion on their phones.
- They are both charged with murder and have bail set at $1.05 million and $1 million, respectively.
Who are Brandon Thoma and Taylor Blaha?
A mother and father in Iowa have been charged with drowning their newborn daughter in a bathtub shortly after she was born. After the mother used meth to help alleviate the agony of her home birth, Brandon Thoma, 31, and Taylor Blaha, 24, dunked the infant in water to stop it from wailing. Thoma disposed of the baby at a neighboring landfill hours after drowning it.
What drove them to murder their own child?
When Webster County Sheriff’s Office officers seized their phones after learning about the incident, they learned that both had been looking for ways to cause a miscarriage.
Following their arrest on Wednesday, the couple was charged with first-degree murder. Thoma has also been charged with causing bodily harm to a body. Bail was set at $1.05 million and $1 million, respectively.
According to an affidavit, detectives received a call on November 22 from an Iowa Department of Human Services employee saying that Blaha had been brought to a hospital and that she had given birth to a baby at home and then disposed of it.
Police Investigation
She contacted the Webster County Sheriff’s Office after becoming concerned about the reports, and a detective was dispatched to the hospital. Blaha then informed the detective that she gave birth to a girl in the bathroom of her Fort Dodge house on November 16.
She also stated that the father’s name was Thoma and that the pair already had a two-year-old kid. Thoma stayed in the bedroom as she gave birth, but once she was born, he came into the bathroom and cut the umbilical cord before assisting her in moving from the toilet to the bathtub with the baby.
According to the affidavit, when she delivered the baby, it was alive, wailing, and waving its arms. To alleviate her discomfort, she requested amphetamine from Thoma. Blaha explained to the detective that she had no intention of keeping the kid and that the goal was for her sister to adopt her.
How did the incident happen?
Thoma disclosed in a statement on December 7 that he was terrified that if law enforcement discovered the infant, they would find meth in its system and remove his second child, a two-year-old son. Because the baby’s wailing was likely to raise the suspicions of a neighbor, the couple decided to drown her.
According to the affidavit, Thoma demonstrated to Blaha that this could be accomplished by drowning the baby in a half-full bathtub. Thoma retrieved the baby’s body from the bathtub before putting it in trash bags and placing it in a rucksack that he used to transport her out of the apartment.
Blaha informed the police that Thoma left with the backpack early the next morning and returned to find it empty. Thomas ultimately told authorities where the body had been dumped, in a rural location to the north of the North Central Iowa Regional landfill, on December 5. Surveillance footage showed Thoma leaving the apartment with the backpack and returning with an ‘obviously empty’ backpack.
After confiscating their phones, authorities discovered that both Thoma and Blaha had been looking for information on how to induce a miscarriage. Thoma also mentioned how he cut the baby’s umbilical cord with a pair of scissors they had in their apartment and saved parts of it to remember the infant. Police later discovered either the umbilical cord or the placenta in the top drawer of the couple’s dresser.
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Lavanya (Senior Editor) is a full-time content writer with almost 5 years of experience and a part-time teacher. She joined Medico Topics on the Breaking News trainee scheme in 2022 and now works on MedicoTopics.com. As a lifelong learner, She is constantly curious about learning new things and passionate about sharing knowledge with people through her writing and teaching.