Woman kills pregnant teen and raids her womb to pass off baby as her own

A Brazilian woman has been arrested for murdering an eight-month pregnant teenager and taking her baby from her womb, police said on Tuesday (5 December).

Aline Roberta Fagundes confessed that she lured the 18-year-old student Gabrielle Barcelos Silva to her house in the city of Uberlandia on the pretext of gifting her baby clothes.

Fagundes, 38, first mixed tranquilisers in her drink and then removed the child from the womb by conducting a crude C-section, the Mirror reported.

She then called the emergency services claiming that she had given birth to a baby girl on the street.

She also smeared Silva's blood over herself to make it look like she had delivered the girl.

But the medical staff at the hospital that treated her and the baby became suspicious and called the police.

Fagundes admitted that she had committed the murder to gain access to Silva's baby after she had a miscarriage earlier this year. Police said Fagundes' partner had threatened to leave her after the miscarriage.

Meanwhile, Fagundes' 14-year-old son had arrived home to find Silva's body wrapped in a mattress and kept in the backyard. He also found blood stains inside the house and called the police.

The police were able to put the pieces of the ghastly crime together after the calls from the hospital and the boy.

Fagundes confessed that she had targeted Silva, who lived in the same neighbourhood, after she came to know that the teen was pregnant. She had googled the internet on how to perform a C-section and had cut the victim open with a stiletto knife.

She alleged that her partner knew about her plan and had helped her get rid of the body. The unnamed 34-year-old man was later arrested but he claimed innocence. Police are yet to confirm if the partner was involved in the crime in any way.

The baby is said to be stable and is undergoing special care after.

In a similar incident, a woman from New York has been jailed for a total of 40 years after killing an expectant mother in order to snatch the unborn child from her womb.

Ashleigh Wade was convicted of killing her childhood friend Angelikque Sutton in New York, on 20 November 2015. The child, named Jenasis, miraculously survived the ordeal.