Student accused of murder
PITTSBURGH — Erie police charged a Mercyhurst College volleyball player on Tuesday with killing the baby she secretly gave birth to in her on-campus apartment.
Teri Rhodes, 18, hid the pregnancy from friends and teammates, told a doctor two days before the birth that she didn't think she was pregnant and did Internet research on topics including "what can kill a fetus," police said.
After giving birth Aug. 12, Rhodes put the newborn in a plastic bag and left it on the floor of a bathtub as she showered, according to the criminal complaint.
Among other counts, Rhodes was charged with homicide, abusing a corpse and concealing the death of a child. Her attorney, Philip Friedman, declined to comment.
The sophomore has been living at her parents' house in Commerce, Mich., near Detroit. She was freed on $25,000 bond Tuesday afternoon.
"The defendant made no attempt to seek medical care and even went so far as to deny to medical personnel that she had even given birth," investigators said in court papers. Rhodes "intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or negligently caused the death of her newborn baby girl."
The baby was full term, police said. A coroner ruled the death a homicide, saying the infant girl had been alive for about 10 minutes before being suffocated.
A short time after Rhodes gave birth, the volleyball team's assistant coach, Sarah King, took the teenager to a local hospital, unaware that she had just delivered a baby, police said in an affidavit.
Rhodes initially denied to hospital personnel that she had given birth, but later admitted it after being examined by a doctor, according to the complaint. She told police she realized she was giving birth when she went to the bathroom and saw the baby's leg.
Rhodes passed a sports physical that cleared her to play volleyball just two days before she gave birth, police said.
