Thursday, February 16, 2006

When will teen girls learn not to carry dead babies around in their backpack?

A teenager who walked into a suburban hospital with a dead newborn in her backpack hours after giving birth has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, police said Friday. Zehra Catalbas, 18, of Mount Sinai pleaded not guilty at her arraignment on Thursday and was released on $10,000 bail. She apparently had kept her pregnancy secret until giving birth in the shower at her family's Long Island home Feb. 4, said Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, a Suffolk County detective. Catalbas walked into Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson with the dead baby in her backpack and told doctors she was in pain. An autopsy showed the baby died of asphyxiation. Catalbas' father had a heart attack after being told what happened, but is recovering Fitzpatrick said. A call to Catalbas's attorney was not immediately returned Friday.

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