MCCONNELLSBURG, PA – In a shocking incident, two young parents in McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania are facing charges of homicide after their newborn baby was found dead in the street. Joshua Coleman Wooters, 19, and Emily Jane Dickinson, 20, have been arrested for the death of their son, whose body was discovered by police, along with a bloodstained mattress and placenta, discarded outside their residence.
The Pennsylvania State Police report indicated that the lifeless body of the infant was located near the intersection of Lincoln Way and North 2nd Street on the morning of March 11. Initial findings suggest that the child died less than 24 hours after birth, which was at about 36 or 37 weeks gestation. An autopsy revealed that the child succumbed to exsanguination from the umbilical stump, a severe bleeding condition.
As the investigation unfolded, a local trooper queried Wooters regarding the deceased infant, but he feigned ignorance, even spelled out the word sex to emphasize his supposed virginity. Subsequent police searches in the couple’s apartment, located in the vicinity where the baby was found, uncovered traces of blood, suggesting a violent event had taken place there.
Both Wooters and Dickinson were interrogated, with Wooters eventually confessing the child was theirs. In his statement, Wooters depicted a grim scenario in which Dickinson nonchalantly severed the umbilical cord with a kitchen knife and, without any attempts to stem the bleeding, threw the baby out the bathroom window. Dickinson’s recount of the event slightly differed, as she claimed to believe the child had died immediately after birth, attributing her subsequent actions, which also included tossing the child from the window to hallucinations caused by blood loss.
Furthermore, Dickinson, despite her credentials as a certified nursing assistant, admitted to not attempting life-saving measures such as CPR. DNA testing confirmed that the couple were indeed the biological parents of the victim.
In the wake of this tragedy, law enforcement also discovered that Dickinson had been conducting online searches that signaled her apprehension about her pregnancy, touching on topics of abortion law and post-delivery bleeding.
The accused are both detained at the Bedford County Jail without bond. Given the severity of the accusations, including criminal homicide, and the potential for life imprisonment, neither Wooters nor Dickinson has been granted bail.
