US teen charged with murder over dead baby in NY store

New York, July 31

An American teenager has been charged with murder nearly two years after her newborn son was found dead in her bag at a New York lingerie store, prosecutors have said.

Tiona Rodriguez, 18 and from Brooklyn, was charged in the New York State Supreme Court with murder in the second degree, Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance said yesterday.

 The baby's body was discovered after his mother was questioned by store security for suspected theft.

Police told AFP at the time that two 17-year-old girls were pulled aside on suspicion of stuffing lacy underwear into their bags without paying at Victoria's Secret in Herald Square.

The horrifying discovery of the dead baby was then made.

New York's chief medical examiner later ruled that the child had died as a result of homicidal asphyxiation.

"I am confident that the experienced homicide and child abuse prosecutors in my office will see that justice is served in this tragic case," Vance said yesterday.

Rodriguez allegedly delivered the baby on October 16, 2013 in the bathroom of a friend's apartment in Queens, the day before going to the Victoria's Secret store.

Victoria's Secret, the largest lingerie retailer in the United States, is famous for its bombshell catwalk models. —AFP