Mother who dumped her newborn baby into ocean off Florida coast sentenced to 14 years in prison
A mother who dumped her newborn's body into the ocean off the Florida coast five years ago pleaded guilty Wednesday to manslaughter and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Arya Singh, 30, also pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse during a Palm Beach County court hearing. She had been facing a second-degree murder charge, which carried a potential life sentence.
Singh said little in court, other than yes or no when the judge asked her questions, CBS affiliate WPEC reported.
The infant girl, whose body was found floating off Palm Beach County on June 1, 2018, by an off-duty firefighter, was dubbed "Baby June."
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office launched a massive search for the mother. Detectives checked more than 600 mothers who had given birth in nearby hospitals, but all still had their babies.
The case went cold until last year when detectives ran the baby's DNA through a genetic database that turned up a relative of the father. The father told detectives he had not known about the child until a month or two after she was born. He said Singh told him she'd given birth to his child, but had taken care of it.
According to the sheriff's office, the investigation uncovered Singh's cellphone search history: "Boynton Beach Inlet" was looked up more than 500 times in the month before and after her baby was found, WPEC reported.
A test of Singh's DNA proved the child was hers. She told detectives she did not know she was pregnant until giving birth in a hotel bathroom. She said she placed the dead child's body in the water a day after giving birth but that she didn't know if the baby was alive when it was born.
An autopsy showed that the baby died of asphyxiation before being placed in the water.
"All I'll say is it was a tragic and unfortunate situation," Singh's defense attorney Greg Salnick told WPEC outside the courtroom. "Ms. Singh is grateful that the matter is behind her. She will one day again become a productive member of society."