Lakeland girl, 14, charged in newborn's death

[Oh Snap]

http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/s...new-ar-516071/

Cassidy Goodson was a 14-year-old with a secret, deputies said.

The Kathleen High School ninth-grader was pregnant and didn't want anyone to find out, deputies said. As she began to show, she wore baggy clothes to conceal her appearance.

And then last week, deputies said, she felt increasingly ill, went to the bathroom of her home and did the unthinkable.

Goodson gave birth into a toilet, then strangled her healthy, full-term newborn to death and left the body in a shoebox among dirty laundry, Sheriff Grady Judd said.

It was an "incredibly tragic event that makes you sick to your stomach," Judd said.

Goodson was charged Thursday with premeditated first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

"It's important to point out that the investigation is ongoing," Judd said at a news conference, "but quite frankly there never will be adequate explanations, nor do we suspect that all of our questions will be answered."

Goodson was treated Sept. 19 at Lakeland Regional Medical Center for what was reported to be a miscarriage. According to deputies, her mother found blood around the toilet, and the daughter said she flushed the fetus down the toilet without looking.

However, on Sept. 22, her mother was collecting laundry in her daughter's bedroom and smelled an odor coming from a storage stool, investigators said. Inside was a bag with soiled clothing, which she took to the kitchen sink to sort through, investigators said.

While going through the bag, she found the body and called family members who notified authorities, investigators said.

An autopsy determined the boy was born full-term and breathing prior to death, and the death was the result of asphyxia from strangulation and blunt force trauma.

According to deputies, Goodson – who concealed her pregnancy by wearing baggy clothes the past several months – told detectives she felt ill Sept. 17 and that the discomfort continued through Sept. 19.

She told detectives she went into labor while in the bathroom Sept. 19, placing a towel in her mouth and turning on the bathroom water to conceal any noise she might make during the delivery. He mother was in the home at the time, Judd said.

As her pain increased, she told detectives she took a pair of scissors to "pry the baby out." The infant, who was 9½ pounds and more than 20 inches, was delivered in the toilet, deputies said.

The teen, who is 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs about 100 pounds, told detectives she lifted the moving infant from the toilet, felt for a pulse, found one, then placed her hands around the infant's neck and squeezed until he wasn't moving or breathing any longer. She took the infant's pulse again and found none, deputies said.

The girl told detectives she choked the baby to "stop him from breathing," before placing the infant's body in the box.

"Everybody's a loser here, but this 14-year-old child murdered her infant baby, which was successfully delivered at home," Judd said.

When asked why she did it, she told deputies "she didn't want to change the relationship with her mother and her family," the sheriff said.

The teen did not know what to do with the child, Judd said.

Deputies said that over the past five months two family members suspected the teen was pregnant and counseled the teen's mother, Teresa Goodson, regarding her daughter's changing appearance.

The girl's mother, however, was in denial about the pregnancy, Judd said.

She cited two home pregnancy tests that showed no positive result. Deputies said the mother allowed the girl to take the tests alone and in private to protect her privacy.

Cassidy Goodson was being held at the Polk County Juvenile Detention Facility.

I don't want to live on this planet anymore!