CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — A Douglas County judge denied bond for a Highlands Ranch woman who is accused of tossing her newborn onto a neighbor’s deck where it was found dead in January.
Camille Wasinger-Konrad, 23, is accused of giving birth on Jan. 2 and then tossing the newborn onto a neighbor’s back deck where it was found dead about 15 hours later.
Wasinger-Konrad is charged with first-degree murder-victim under 12/position of trust, first-degree murder-after deliberation and tampering with evidence.
Court records have been sealed. But at a preliminary hearing Tuesday morning, it was revealed Wasinger-Konrad claimed to not know she was pregnant until the morning she gave birth.
Douglas County sheriff’s deputies responded to the 500 block of Longfellow Lane about 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 2 after Jeanette Barich reported finding a dead infant on her back deck.
Barich told detectives she went onto the back deck to use her hot tub when she noticed her dog smelling what appeared to be a dead baby. She immediately brought the infant inside her home and called 911.
Detectives soon found a bloody shower curtain in the next-door neighbor’s trash can. Wasinger-Konrad had been renting a room from the family next door for about four months.
Wasinger-Konrad’s landlord told detectives that she had cleaned an immense amount of blood that morning from the upstairs bathroom that Wasinger-Konrad uses but had no idea Wasinger-Konrad might have been pregnant.
Douglas County Det. Adam Moorman found Wasinger-Konrad sitting on her bed upstairs and she agreed to talk with him but claimed to have no idea what he might be investigating.
After he asked Wasinger-Konrad if her DNA might match the dead baby he found next door, she responded, “Well the thing is I I don’t want to get in trouble.”
But eventually she explained she woke up that day between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. to bad stomach cramps and “The baby just came out.”
In an interview recorded on a deputy’s body camera, Wasinger-Konrad told detectives “I just got rid of it.”
She explained she put her hand over the baby’s mouth so her landlord’s family, who were asleep, wouldn’t hear the newborn crying. She then claimed to carry the baby outside in a blanket and sat on the deck for about 10 minutes, still covering the baby’s mouth.
Then she admitted walking to the backyard fence and with an underhand motion, tossed the newborn over a 9-foot fence. Moorman testified that blood evidence indicates the infant bounced off a railing and the back of a deck chair before landing onto Barich’s deck.
Det. Adam Moorman testified that he later interviewed a co-worker of Wasinger-Konrad’s, Denise Craven.
The two worked together at a King Soopers in Highlands Ranch, and Craven told Moorman that Wasinger-Konrad had requested a new schedule in recent months to work a job where she wouldn’t have to lift items because she claimed to be pregnant.
Wasinger-Konrad’s public defender pointed out that Moorman never interviewed supervisors at King Soopers to confirm if Wasinger-Konrad had mentioned being pregnant and needing a new schedule and job assignment.
It was also revealed that Wasinger-Konrad’s family and boyfriend refused to talk to detectives, so it’s not clear if they knew she was pregnant.
At the end of the preliminary hearing, the judge granted a motion from prosecutors to immediately swab Wasinger-Konrad for DNA. She will back in court for an arraignment on May 22.
The Douglas County Coroner’s Office is waiting on more tests.
