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Melissa
Drexler, 18, concealed her pregnancy from everyone.
After arriving
with friends at the Aberdeen Township Banquet Hall in New Jersey,
for the Lacey Township High School prom, Drexler went to the women's
restroom and gave birth to a son within about 20 - 30 minutes, with
her friends right outside the stall.
She told
her friend, "Go tell the boys I'll be right out."
Born alive,
the infant was suffocated. Drexler cut the umbilical cord on the
edge of a metal sanitary napkin box in the stall.
Drexler
went to the dance floor.
Maintenance
workers were called in to clean up the blood found a bag in the
garbage with a dead baby inside. Blood tests revealed no trace of
drugs or alcohol.
Prosecutors
in Monmouth County initially charged Drexler with murder, but she
pled guilty to aggravated manslaughter on October 29, 1998.
Statement
read in court by Melissa Drexler as she pleaded guilty to aggravated
manslaughter:
"I knew I
was pregnant.
I concealed
the pregnancy from everyone.
On the
morning of the prom my water broke.
While I
was in the car on the way to the prom, I began to have cramps. I
went to the prom and I went into the bathroom and delivered the
baby.
The baby
was born alive. I knowingly took the baby out the toilet and wrapped
a series of garbage bags around the baby. I then placed the baby
in another garbage bag, knotted it closed and threw it in the trash
can.
I was aware
of what I was doing at the time when I placed the baby in the bag.
And I was further aware that what I did would most certainly result
in the death of the baby."
New Jersey
v. Melissa Drexler "The
Prom Mom Case"
Crying
and apologetic, Melissa Drexler was sentenced
to 15 years in prison for killing her newborn son moments after
delivering the baby in the bathroom at her senior prom.
Melissa
admits she killed her newborn son and plead guilty to aggravated
manslaughter in the death of the boy she delivered during her high
school senior prom.
Update:
Released from prison, 11/2001 at age 23 to go home and
live with her parents. She was noted to be a model prisoner.
Melissa Drexler took fashion
courses while in prison and hopes to work in the industry, said
her lawyer, Steven Secare.
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