A woman accused of killing her pregnant neighbour so she could keep the baby with her boyfriend, intends to change her not-guilty plea.
Brooke Crews, 38, filed a change-of-plea notice in North Dakota's Cass County court. It does not say how Ms Crews intends to change her plea. A hearing is scheduled for 11 December.
Crews and her boyfriend, 32-year-old William Hoehn, are each charged with conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping in the death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind, of Fargo.
Greywind, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, was eight months pregnant when she disappeared 19 August. Her body was found by kayakers in the Red River. It was wrapped in plastic and duct tape.
Investigators haven’t said how she was killed, but Fargo’s police chief called it a “cruel and vicious act of depravity.”
The baby girl, who survived, was found in Ms Crews and Mr Hoehn’s apartment. Greywind’s boyfriend, Ashton Matheny, said DNA tests confirmed that he and Greywind are the girl’s parents. He now has custody, prosecutor Leah Viste said.
Ms Crews and Mr Hoehn gave investigators differing accounts of what happened, according to the criminal complaint. Ms Crews told police she arranged to have Greywind come to her apartment on 19 August and told her how to induce labour, and that Greywind returned two days later to give her the newborn baby.
But Mr Hoehn told investigators he came home 19 August to find Crews cleaning up blood in their bathroom. He said Ms Crews presented him with the infant girl and said: “This is our baby. This is our family,” the complaint states.
Mr Hoehn told police he took garbage bags containing bloody shoes and his bloody towels and disposed of them away from the apartment complex, according to the documents.
Crews and Hoehn remain jailed with bond set at $2m (£1.4m) each.
