A woman who faked a pregnancy and panicked as her supposed due date grew near attacked a pregnant mother with a baseball bat and cut her full-term fetus from her womb with an Exacto knife, killing the mother and baby, according to court documents filed Monday.
Annette Morales-Rodriguez, 33, faces one count each of first-degree intentional homicide while armed and first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child while armed in the death of Maritza Ramirez-Cruz and the boy she was set to deliver next week. Morales-Rodriguez faces mandatory life in prison if convicted.
Pregnant mom, unborn baby killed in ‘fetal abduction’
Morales-Rodriguez made a brief court appearance Monday, standing silent as her bail was set at $1 million. Online court records didn’t list an attorney for her, and the Milwaukee public defender’s office voicemail wouldn’t accept messages Monday afternoon.
“I don’t know what she had in her mind,” said Maria Garcia, 44, who lives next to Morales-Rodriguez and described her as her best friend.
According to the criminal complaint, Morales-Rodriguez told detectives that her boyfriend wanted a son but she couldn’t get pregnant. She told him she was pregnant anyway, but started to grow desperate as what would be her due date approached.
She told investigators she planned for two weeks to find a pregnant woman, take the baby and make it hers, the complaint
Morales-Rodriguez drove around on Wednesday searching for a pregnant woman, but found none, authorities said. On Thursday she drove around a nonprofit organization that provides Hispanics with health care and found Ramirez-Cruz.
The 23-year-old had moved from Puerto Rico to join her childhood sweetheart, Christian Mercado, said Mercado’s father, Carlos Mercado. They already had three children together and Ramirez-Cruz was carrying their fourth.
Morales-Rodriguez told detectives she thought about telling her boyfriend the truth, but decided against it and offered Ramirez-Cruz a ride.
Telling Ramirez-Cruz she needed to change her shoes, she drove them to her weathered two-story house on Milwaukee’s south side. Ramirez-Cruz went inside to use the bathroom. When she emerged, Morales-Rodriguez was waiting for her with a baseball bat.
The complaint said Morales-Rodriguez began to bludgeon her. Ramirez-Cruz fell to the ground. Morales-Rodriguez straddled the younger woman and choked her until she passed out, the complaint said.
