“Two weeks ago there was a baby. Now there’s no baby.” Says Tipster To Cops

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Kansas City police are investigating the death of a baby found in a plastic bag in the bed of the father’s pickup truck Thursday.

The 2-week-old baby’s body was frozen, so the Jackson County Medical Examiner could not perform an autopsy Thursday, police said. Once the body thaws, the medical examiner will try to determine the cause of death.

The baby’s parents, a 38-year-old woman and her 51-year-old boyfriend, told police the baby was stillborn.

The revolting discovery was made after a man visited the couple’s house in the 11300 block of East 49th Street Thursday, became suspicious and called police. The man said he had visited the home on Jan. 9, when the woman was giving birth in the bathroom.

The man returned Thursday and asked the parents about the baby. The parents began acting weird and evading his questions, police said.

The man called police after he left about 10:35 a.m. He told officers: “Two weeks ago there was a baby. Now there’s no baby.”

Police officers went to the home and questioned the couple. They provided a few excuses but then admitted they had a baby in the bathtub on Jan. 9. They said it was born dead.

When the officers asked where the body was, the woman said to “ask my boyfriend.”

The boyfriend said he cut the umbilical cord and wrapped the baby’s body in a plastic bag. He then put the bag in the bed of his truck.
[...]

Police arrested the mother on an outstanding drug warrant from Vernon County. Police released the father, pending further investigation.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/27...to-frozen.html

[Dakota Valkyrie]

In a video here, the mom is identified as Wanda Benenhaley.

[Rockin Ma]

In a video here, the mom is identified as Wanda Benenhaley.

WHAT?

[Silvahalo]

She looks like hell. The drug arrest makes sense.

Could very well be baby was born dead. She was likely doing drugs at the time.
Still to dump the body in a truck and leave it there.....sigh.

Rest in peace little one.

[Valasca]

Was that a typo? Did they mean 138? Cause DAMN.

[badfish76]

Bah! This almost made me vomit.

It's horrible what crack does to a person.

[Gidget]

I am the same age as this ... person? I am going to stop bitching about how I look now.

And what in the FUCK is wrong with people that they think you can toss a dead baby in the bed of a pickup truck like it's an empty beer can?

[Rekrats]

I'm gonna bet the autopsy proves the baby drew breath. This uterus does not look like the American Baby parent-type. Something tells me neither she nor the penis would have wanted the expenditure of a child, which would take drug money right out of their reach with all of its unreasonable demands (diapers, food, clothes, etc.). And anyone who can carry a child to full-term, give birth to it and then just shrug and get on with their life when it IS born still... not to mention letting baby-daddy just stuff it into a plastic bag and shuck it into the back of the pickup truck... well that's the kind of person that probably would not have an issue drowning or smothering a newborn, or allowing the penis to do it for her.

Gah. Sterilize them both either way... so this doesn't happen again.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Benenhaley says baby was stillborn.

The mother of a metro woman who authorities say may have left the body of her allegedly stillborn child to freeze solid in a bag in the back of her boyfriend's pickup truck says that her daughter "didn't use her head."

Wanda Benenhaley said she gave birth to a stillborn baby on Jan. 9 and the baby's father then put the baby in a plastic bag in the back of his truck, where police found it frozen solid on Thursday. Benenhaley is currently in custody in the Jackson County Jail on a drug warrant from another county.
[...]

Benenhaley's mother, who lives in a small Missouri town said that she spoke to her daughter on Friday morning, and she says that her daughter told her that she didn't do anything wrong. But she says that her daughter should have known better.

"She should have called somebody when she had the baby, but she was afraid and didn't use her head," the woman told FOX 4.
[...]

Prosecutors say that even if the autopsy reveals that the baby was stillborn, the couple could still be charged with abandonment of a corpse.

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-moth...,4452623.story

[Silvahalo]

So she's saying baby was born dead. And she knew this for certain? IF This baby wasn't unwanted she should have called for help. She "didn't use her head". I say she did't use her heart. Somehow I don't think she bothered to name her.

Rest in peace baby girl, I'll remember you as Cloe Celeste....on the wings of an angel.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

She "didn't use her head". I say she did't use her heart.

People without a heart usually have, at minimum, a brain. This couple seems to be missing both. Quite the feat considering there are two of them.

[Robynne]

If the baby was stillborn, perhaps these drug addicted douche-bags caused it while producing toxins into the child in-utero. They were probably doing drugs right before she went into labor, and for that reason they didn't call anyone. Give birth, wait a couple days til the drugs are out of the baby's system and take her to the doctor. But, uh oh... she went into labor because the baby was dead. Her body must have had enough toxins in it, that having a dead baby inside as well was too much for it to handle. So, what to do with the body so they don't get arrested? I know, plastic bag, bed of truck, and when the weather clears a bit, we can bury her body. Hmmmm, good plan. NOT!!!!!!!

Fucking assholes. Get Sterilized!!!!!

R.I.P. Cloe Celeste sweet angel

(thanks silvahalo68)

[Dazeybells]

I've had a stillborn. Healthy pregnancy all the way until my baby girl got wrapped in the umbilical cord. I didn't even know she had passed until I went to the doctor for a pregnancy check. I was heart broken. I was hospitalized immediately. I wouldn't go into labor no matter how hard the doctors tried. For two days I carried a dead baby until I finally went into labor and had her with the cord still around her neck. I miss her, I miss what could have been. My husband and I named her Angelica because that's what she will always be for me and my family; my little angle watching over us. I don't believe her story. Having a stillborn baby is one of the most life altering, tragic things that can happen to a person. She killed that baby. She didn't want the baby.
As for the friend whom reported it, good for you. Why the hell didn't you call an ambulance when she was in the bathroom giving birth!?
Poor baby never had a chance. I will never understand why people have children that they intend to hate instead of love. I have read the comments about the women here having trouble conceiving, or like me have lost a little one. Why can't we get these unwanted babies to give our love to instead of human garbage that will never understand the joy a child brings to a true parent's life?
Vent over.

[Miss Anthrope]

@ Dazeybells - I am so sorry you had to go through something so heartbreaking! I can't even begin to imagine. . .

[Rockin Ma]

I'm sorry for your loss dazeybells :(

Having a stillborn baby is one of the most life altering, tragic things that can happen to a person.

I can agree with you, but I also can see that people really could just move on to the next thing like it was nothing.

Personally, I hope the baby was stillborn vs. suffocating/freezing to death outside in a plastic bag in the back of a truck. Either way, she was harming her baby clearly with drug use in utero.