Forget that baby, I’m going to Disneyland
A vacationing Indiana teen pulled a Melissa Drexler yesterday when she had a baby between bites of her Grand Slam breakfast at an Anaheim, California, Denny’s just across from the Happiest Place on Earth.
Long sentence, I know, but you read that right.
Remember Melissa? She’s the one that popped out a baby, dropped it in the trash, during her high school prom. Then she went back to the party.
Here’s a snip about today’s postergirl for sterilization:
ANAHEIM – A customer at a Denny’s restaurant found a newborn baby girl in a trash can inside the women’s restroom Monday afternoon, police said.
The baby girl was breathing when she was discovered at about noon at 1168 W. Katella Ave. near Disneyland, Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez said.
Fire dispatchers instructed the customer who found the baby to administer first aid prior to the arrival of paramedics. The baby was then taken to Western Medical Center-Anaheim and is in good condition, Martinez said.
“It’s obvious that the child was in danger of dying and we are fortunate that the quick actions of many people, including the paramedics resulted in this baby living,” Martinez said.
A 17-year-old girl from Indiana with blood-stained pants and blood dripping down her legs was also transported to the hospital.
“We are speaking to her and we believe she is the mother that gave birth,” Martinez said, adding that detectives gathered evidence in the restroom to establish who the mother is.
Detectives are also interviewing the girl’s boyfriend and his parents, Martinez said.
Prior to the incident, the girl was at the restaurant eating with her boyfriend, his parents and two children. The family from Indiana was on vacation.
The girl’s boyfriend and his family waited outside the Denny’s as police conducted their investigation. They declined to comment.
More recent reports indicate that no one knew the girl was pregnant.
Guess they thought the bloodstained shorts she was wearing just made her look fat.
July 17th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Even though this sort of things seems to happen with some amount of frequency, I am always surprised that no one noticed the pregnancy. It never ceases to amaze me.
July 17th, 2007 at 10:37 am
And what about noticing that she was in labor? Good heavens, I would think that was a little obvious.
July 17th, 2007 at 10:46 am
I thought Amy got her boyfriend to dump the baby in a dumpster while she was at university, and that Melissa Drexler was the Prom mum?
July 17th, 2007 at 10:54 am
It’s entirely possible that if the girl was obese to begin with, that noone would have noticed her pregnancy. However, the girl had to have known that she was pregnant and that the labor pains were not your average intestinal ache from eating Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast.
As usual, I’m left with so many questions. What about the boyfriend? And the grandparents? Weren’t they the slightest bit concerned about the girl’s extended restroom visit? It must have taken her more than a few minutes to give birth.
July 17th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Fiz, you’re right. Melissa’s the Prom Mom. Fixed the post. Or should I say Fizzed the post? Thanks,
gregg
July 17th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Jumpin’ Judas, I don’t know about anyone else, but when I gave birth, I don’t think I would have BEEN ABLE to be sitting somewhere eating. More like BITING off my husband’s head as I worked thru labor. It just amazes me.
Then, SICKENS me. Throwing babies into trash cans has to be one of the CRUELEST, sickest things ever. They need to put these girls in mental institutions and give them a little “sew” job while they’re at it.
IMO
July 17th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I think all of them were in massive denial, but how could anyone do such a thing? I wanted my kids so much and waited such a long time for them. They didn’t mean to get pregnant(how hard is it to get contraception in the US?), so they wait nine months and then murder the baby??? Sheesh! I agree, Scarlett, they should be “seen to” so they can’t have any more little “inconveniences”.
July 17th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I guess what bothers me most, now correct me if I’m wrong here, is that there are safe places for babies to be left without the girls getting into trouble. I’m not sure if this is in all states or not???
There seems to always be an option besides tossing aside a helpless baby.
July 17th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
What’s even more frustrating is that in this day and age with birth control so easy to get. Not to mention condoms. There is no good reason for unwanted babies. And if you’re “caught” and your so grown up be a grown-up, have the baby and put it up for adoption if you don’t want it.
These kinds of stories makes my blood boil! What if anything have they been taught?
July 17th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Agreed Sherry. It is very frustrating for me when so many wonderful women in the world want children and can’t have them.
July 17th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I watched a news report earlier today and the girl had on a very fitted t-top and normal shorts. She had what the entertainment rags refer to as a baby bump. The boyfriend looked stunned. The mother of the boyfriend found the baby. The girl’s parents and the boy’s parent were on this trip together with their children. Thank goodness the baby survived — they sure have a mess to sort out.
July 17th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Coming from that area of Disney…I knew someone who tried to hide her pregnancy. She just said she’s gain weight and squeezed herself in the same size pants. Tightening her belt. That could not be good for the baby.
July 17th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Frankly Scarlett, I agree with you… I remember my labor pains. Not sure how ANYONE could have missed the fact that she was in labor because it would have been quite painful and time consuming, even if she was in labor for an hour…
These girls need to be smacked upside their head; so do their parents…
July 18th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Here we go again…
When these moms throw their unwanted babies away like trash, I always have to ask: WHY don’t these girls use birth control, make their partners use condoms, put the baby up for adoption or use the safe haven laws. California has Save Haven Laws. This girl could have had her baby in a hospital and left it there. She would not have gotten into any trouble. I am glad that the baby is alive.
Babies are human beings, not trash! I wish these selfish moms had the capacity to realize that.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Is it an outworking of the “Me First” society that has developed both sides of the Atlantic since the 1980’s?
July 18th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Our presidential administration requires the preaching of abstinence for sex education in public schools. This case is another example of why we need better education and not religious teaching in highschool sex ed classes.
The girl had to hide her pregnancy becuase the stigma of the knowledge of it would have had such a negative impact on her life. It’s too bad that she couldn’t have gone to a school counselor or other adult for help before the situation went as far as it did.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:51 am
OMG…I cannot believe that with all of the Safe Haven laws to protect newborns that there are still heartless beings that will throw a baby in the trash. I am surprised she didn’t try to flush it.
I read on one of the responses that the mother of the boyfriend was the woman who found the baby. How horrible it must be to find your grandchild thrown away like garbage.
I sincerely hope this baby doesn’t end up back in either family. Can you imagine growing up and finding out the deep dark secret that you were put in the trash right after birth? If ever there was a case for adoption, this is one.
July 18th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Mike,
I don’t believe she had to hide. I am sure someone somewhere will attempt to attach some psychological term to this as usual.
While there probably are some girls out there that are mentally unstable, IMHO, there are far more out there that are just plain selfish. They don’t want to give up their life to take care of a baby. They think that everything in life now is throw away.
Sibby,
I don’t know that the grandparents of the boy should be denied loving the child. Who knows, maybe they found it for a reason. Maybe it was the chance that it never would have gotten otherwise. I am a big beleiver that everything happens for a reason.
On the same token, just like with the other yahoo that left her baby in the back of her car while she partied, I don’t feel that they should be given second chances as a parent (to that particular child, I am not speaking of subsequent children from other relationships.)
July 19th, 2007 at 6:18 am
TXMichelle, perhaps you are right, but I still believe that being placed with either family leaves the door open for this girl to learn the truth, which will be something very difficult to deal with. It is possible whichever family member that may get custody of her will seek advice on the best way to deal with this information.
I still think adoption would be a better alternative, but that is simply my own opinion.
July 19th, 2007 at 10:02 am
What about the adolescent that put herself in the wrong situation? Do we throw her out too? Is there no help for one so young? Who will stand up for the rights of all men? Where did the sperm come from? Who has not be guilty of covering up something huge in their lives, because they don’t have enough knowledge and wisdom through life’s experiences? Yes it’s huge to drop kick innocent lives into the trash. Again my question is what about the innocent 17 year old?
July 19th, 2007 at 11:20 am
How can this particular 17 year old be innocent? She dropped her baby in a trash can! She was willing to have sex, but not to use contraception or accept the consequences of unprotected sex and her reaction was to attempt to leave the baby for dead, in the trash!
July 19th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Answers to Ginny’s questions–
Q: “What about the adolescent that put herself in the wrong situation?”
A: The operative words are–’put HERSELF in’. It was an exercise of her free will to deliver a baby in a Denny’s bathroom and then subsequently dump her helpless daughter in the trash.
Q: “Do we throw her out too?”
A: We hold her accountable for her actions.
Q: “Is there no help for one so young?”
A: Yes, previous posters have already outlined repeatedly all the help that was available to her from prior to conception to the time of delivery. A 17 year old is not a 3 year old.
Q: “Who will stand up for the rights of all men?”
A: The People of the State of California presumably will stand up for the rights of the baby girl left for dead. Even the rights of the one her left her for dead will be protected. No one has the right to endanger the life of a newborn baby.
Q: “Where did the sperm come from?”
A: Hopefully that will be answered during the investigation.
Q: “Who has not be[en] guilty of covering up something huge in their lives, because they don’t have enough knowledge and wisdom through life’s experiences?”
A: Ummm…..me along with the rest of the population who haven’t purposefully endangered the life of another human being.
Q: “Yes it’s huge to drop kick innocent lives into the trash. Again my question is what about the innocent 17 year old?”
A: in·no·cent [in-uh-suhnt]
–adjective
1. free from moral wrong; without sin; pure: innocent children.
2. free from legal or specific wrong; guiltless: innocent of the crime.
3. not involving evil intent or motive: an innocent misrepresentation.
4. not causing physical or moral injury; harmless: innocent fun.
5. devoid (usually fol. by of): a law innocent of merit.
6. having or showing the simplicity or naiveté of an unworldly person; guileless; ingenuous.
7. uninformed or unaware; ignorant.
–noun
8. an innocent person.
9. a young child.
10. a guileless person.
11. a simpleton or idiot.
12. Usually, innocents. (used with a singular verb) bluet (def. 1).
This adjective cannot be appropriately applied to a 17 year old of normal IQ who willfully endangers the life of her child.
Youth, inexperience and/or lack of knowledge and wisdom do not automatically confer innocence upon a person, especially a person who has committed a vile act with disregard for the life of a TRUE innocent.
July 19th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Thanks for the interview Pamela! Reading it felt just like being back in elementary school.
I just love it when somebody has all the answers to those nagging moral questions.
July 19th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
One more thing– I so appreciate the phonetic clarification of the word “innocent” because we really are all morons here.
July 19th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I whole-heartedly believe and wanted to demonstrate that there is a vast difference between a helpless infant and a person who purposefully endangers a helpless infant.
I’m sorry that the way I attempted to do that was offensive to you, A. I do not think anyone here is a moron.
July 19th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
No big deal Pamela. I guess I just wanted to say it’s basic morality and we get it.
As for Ginny’s compassionate questions; I say thank God somebody cares about foolish young girls.
July 19th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I’ll take that baby . . .
What I find interesting is in most of these cases, no one knew these girls were pregnant. When I was pregnant, I was huge. I couldn’t go to the lake because the save the whales foundation kept trying to drag me in . . . lol
Then there was the 23 hours of hard labor. I had an epidural and it still wasn’t easy to hide when the contractions came. I can’t imagine trying to have a baby in a restaurant bathroom stall. It’s not like it happens in minutes. I’m with Bloo, did no one notice she’d taken up residence in the bathroom?
July 20th, 2007 at 1:51 am
Some women have what’s called “precipitate” labour, where they deliver in minutes (so jealous – my first took 28 hours and and my second 15!). However it is quite dangerous and subsequent labours have to be very carefully monitored – the mother can go into shock.
July 20th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Yes, I have heard of that too Fiz. About a year ago there was a woman who had her baby literally in her own toilet. Just that amount of pushing was enough.
I really do think this girl was troubled as well, I dont think she accepted that she was pregnant. And hormones do strange things.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
I also have a difficult time understanding how they are able to conceal a pregnancy.
I saw the footage of this girl walking around in the parking lot in her spaghetti-strap top and bloody shorts, and she appeared to be of average build, so it seems like the fact that she was carrying a full-term baby would have been rather easily discernible.
I wonder if the boyfriend’s mother suspected something and that’s why she went into the bathroom afterward so that she ended up being the one who discovered the baby?
I can see how perhaps more peripheral people in the woman’s life might not notice as easily, especially if she wears clothing that helps to camouflage a pregnancy, but how on earth can the woman’s significant other not know?! Does he just accept no nudity and no sex for months and think that’s normal? And if he does see and touch her naked abdomen, then what’s his excuse for not noticing there’s a baby there?
The lack of the usual pain of childbirth I have a better understanding of, though. In addition to the possibility of precipitous birth that was mentioned, in the same way that psychopaths do not experience emotions or feelings the way others do, I think they do not experience physical pain the same way either.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Pamela, you’re suggesting this young girl is a psychopath?
I’m really not huge on defending this young girl or her actions, but I think calling her a psychopath is a rather large, presumptuous leap.
I wasn’t aware that much about her has been released to the general public yet. At least not enough info to generate a conclusive psychological profile. Please tell me you are basing this statement on more than what we all know.
For gosh sakes, she’s 17. And if 50 is the new 40, then that makes her about 12.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
A.,
No, I have no conclusive psychological profile on this particular person who put her newborn infant in the trash can of the bathroom of the Denny’s restaurant in Anaheim.
I should have made it clear that in the last 2 paragraphs of my previous post I was speaking in general about women who hide their pregnancies, seemingly easily and quietly give birth in secret, and then either kill the baby or leave the baby for dead. This Anaheim case is just one of several similar cases I have read about.
I was proposing a possible explanation for why these births are often much more easily and quietly accomplished than that of the general population. This is based on my own observation of a very high tolerance to physical pain in known psychopaths.
Whether a particular secretly birthing woman who kills or abandons the infant is a psychopath of course has to be determined in each individual case, but what we do know is that there is commonality in a number of these cases–the woman is able to give birth quietly without immediate discovery and then subsequently either kills the baby or abandons it to die.
I was proposing a possible reason as to why such women may be able to give birth the way they do. There is obviously a significant difference in their birthing experience compared to the vast majority of birthing women. Most women would not be able to accomplish such a quick, quiet, secret birth as seems to be common in these types of cases.
Psychopathy can be evident and diagnosed in the teenage years, so age does not rule out such a diagnosis.
While I’m not suggesting this particular 17-year-old girl IS a psychopath, I am suggesting that she and those who have behaved similarly MAY be psychopaths. All else being equal, I would suspect a person who leaves a newborn infant in a trash can of being a psychopath more easily than I would a person who does not.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Pamela- First of all this was a girl, not a woman.
I’m not sure what to make of your assessments wrt these types of cases as a whole, but there is a word that I don’t see in your analysis, which is denial.
Try substituting the word denial where you’ve used the word psychopath and use the word “girl” instead of woman, and the story is quite different.
While I think that what this young girl did is an evil act, I’m not yet willing to call her an evil person. I would need a lot more to go on than a single act or news article to make that assumption.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
btw Pamela, I’m not sure how you can say that you are not suggesting that this girl is a psychopath. The way that I read your post, that’s exactly what you’re suggesting.
July 27th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
As I said, I’m suggesting that she and those who commit similar crimes may lack a conscience, i.e. be psychopaths.
There is some reason why these females do what they do and the rest of us don’t.
You and others have speculated as to possible reasons for this type of behavior. I’m merely doing the same. It’s just a speculation.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Alright–fair enough.
November 21st, 2007 at 10:38 pm
We hear so many of such incidents happening. Don’t these girls care about the lives that they have conceived but fail to honour. There are other choices, in this day & age, I should think that we are not helpless until we lack the strength to fight. Don’t they have moral & even more, maternal instincts that tell them that doing or even thinking of dumping and murdering their child will be on their conscience for the rest of their lives, not to mention some portion of their life spent in prison, that they will be wearing their criminal record.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:07 am
[...] Conversely, consider the case of Melissa Drexler, AKA “The Prom Mom”, just a regular, all_American girl who had her baby unassisted in a bathroom stall at her senior prom and proceeded to strangle him and dump him in the wastebasket, after which she immediately returned to the dance floor. I don’t know what was going on in her brain at the time, but that ‘horomonal love cocktail’, produced by her oh-so-empowering, unmedicated UC, was quite obviously of no help to her poor baby. And she’s not the only one, in case you want to dismiss her as a complete aberration. [...]