An autopsy of a fetus
found in a teenage girl's shopping bag at a New York City lingerie store was
inconclusive, and more tests will be needed to determine how the fetus died,
the city medical examiner's office said Friday.
The
needed tests could take a couple of weeks as police continue to look into the
macabre case.
Preliminary
reports from detectives were that the fetus was born alive and possibly had
been asphyxiated, but chief New York Police Department spokesman John McCarthy
said that the case was still being investigated and that police were awaiting
the medical examiners' determination of the cause of death.
The case began Thursday when a security guard stopped Tiana Rodriguez and Francis Estevez,
both 17, to examine their bags at a Victoria's Secret store in midtown
Manhattan. The guard found the dead fetus in a bag Rodriguez was carrying,
police said.
Rodriguez
told detectives she was carrying the remains because she had delivered a day
earlier and didn't know what to do, authorities said. Police believe Rodriguez
delivered at Estevez' house.
Both
girls were arrested on petit larceny charges. It was unclear whether either has
a lawyer.
Rodriguez
was taken to a hospital and remained there Friday, and a woman who answered the
phone at a possible home number for her said she knew nothing about the matter.
A message left at another possible number for Rodriguez wasn't immediately
returned.
A
woman who said she was Estevez's mother said she hadn't spoken with her
daughter since her arrest and hung up.
The
Associated Press is identifying both teens because in New York, older teens are
treated as adults, and their cases are handled in criminal courts. Suspects
between 7 and 15 may be charged as juveniles and their cases handled in family
courts.
One
of Rodriguez's neighbors, Zami Ford, told the Daily News she was unaware of the
teen's pregnancy and stunned by the allegations.
"She's
a good girl," Ford told the newspaper. "I can't believe she would do
that."
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