Pregnant Woman Found Dead

A pregnant woman was found dead early Tuesday, her abdomen sliced open and her baby taken, and the woman suspected of removing the baby shot herself to death when police arrived to question her, authorities said.

After 23-year-old Theresa Andrews was discovered in a shallow grave, Portage County Coroner Roger Marcial said he did not know whether Andrews was alive when the baby was cut out of her -- nor were there any immediate indications how she died. An autopsy was planned.

Authorities said the baby boy was found healthy. Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci said the baby probably was born Sept. 27, the day Andrews disappeared.

Authorities said Michelle Bica, 39, took the baby but wouldn't provide details.

Police had returned to Bica's house Monday night after questioning her earlier in the day about cell phone calls she had made to the Andrews' home Sept. 27.

As officers arrived, they heard what sounded like a gunshot and Bica's husband, Thomas, shouting her name. They entered an upstairs bedroom and found her shot to death. An autopsy is pending, but Vigluicci said she shot herself.

The baby boy was in a nursery in another room.

Andrews' body was found about two hours later, buried in a shallow grave in the unattached garage of the small, white colonial style house in Ravenna, 32 miles southeast of Cleveland.

The baby was taken to a hospital and listed in good condition.

Vigluicci said investigators are trying to determine whether Bica recently had a miscarriage. He said there was no sign she had given birth.

Thomas Bica, 41, a corrections officer for the Portage County Sheriff's Department, was questioned and released Tuesday morning.

"We felt there were no charges we could hold him on at this time," Vigluicci said.

On the day she disappeared, Theresa Andrews had paged her husband, Jon, at work and said a woman had called inquiring about a 1999 Jeep Wrangler they were trying to sell.

Andrews, a sheet-metal worker, told police that he called home at lunch to see how the potential sale went but no one answered. When he got home at 4:30 p.m., the house was open, the vehicle gone and his wife missing.

Police found the vehicle about a block away.