Ick. 17-year-old mother panics, goes psychotic, stabs her newborn baby 135 times.

[BreweryYardRat]

http://www.startribune.com/467/story/1117417.html

A 17-year-old Oakdale girl told police she gave birth on the laundry room floor early Monday, then panicked and stabbed the baby girl after seeing her move a finger.

The baby, found by investigators in a bloody garbage bag outside the teen's home, had 135 stab wounds, many in her tiny chest. The Ramsey County medical examiner's office said the baby was born alive and bled to death.

Nicole M. Beecroft was charged with first-degree premeditated murder Thursday in Washington County District Court.

County Attorney Douglas Johnson noted that state law allows mothers to leave infants at any hospital within 72 hours of birth with no legal consequences. "She could have walked away and the baby would have been adopted by a family that wanted it," he said. "Instead she destroys two lives: her own and the baby's. "We don't know what motivated her," Johnson said.

Yeesh. I can feel some sympathy for her panicing, but if she'd had half a brain, she'd have waited to heal for a day or two, hopped in her car and given the kid up. She's a fucking imbecile. The fellows at SomethingAwful found her MySpace to prove it, but I won't post it-I'm not sure if that violates rules.

[silverojo]

1. OK, neo-cons, THIS is murder...abortion isn't.

Much better if this girl had had an abortion before the fetus had developed, say, a nervous system capable of feeling pain.

FWIW, I often wonder why a girl in her late teens is called a "girl" by news reports, until she's been raped...then she's suddenly a "woman". Guess you gotta downplay the fact that the rape victim was actually a GIRL. :mad:

[malaise]

2. How do you stab a helpless newborn?

I'll never get it.

[me b zola]

11. post-partum psychosis is my guess

Nothing else comes close to making sense.

[youngdem]

3. At least she didn't have a barbaric abortion. Sanctity of life, ya know?

:sarcasm:

[Missy M]

4. It's a shame this teenager didn't feel she had.....

someone to reach out to when she became pregnant. How isolated and alone she must have felt. My heart cries out for that poor little baby being killed.

[Breeze54]

17. How do you know she didn't have someone?

:shrug:

Just because she is young doesn't make her 'innocent'.
There are a lot of devious 'kids' in the world.

That is the reality.

Did their life circumstances cause it? :shrug:
Who knows but there are also many that had it just as bad that didn't murder.

[Control-Z]

28. and my heart

also cries out for that poor girl - it takes desperation or psychosis for most people to commit such a horrible act. I can't imagine that she just turned into an evil human being over night. The laws of the the state, of morality, of finance, of religion, and/or of her parents probably had as much to do with it she did.

[Canuckistanian]

36. She oviously felt she had few options

Misplaced shame and guilt must have played a part.

And of course, she probably had no idea that she could place the baby up for adoption quickly and quietly.

It was just a desperate act in the face of helplessness.

[H2O Man]

5. "goes psychotic"

?

[flying_monkeys]

6. I won't condemn the 17 year old.

I am heartsick that a baby was killed so brutally - - but I am also heartsick that Nikki felt so panicked that, in her mind, stabbing a baby was a viable option to try. I can't imagine just how skewered her world/head must have been to even think up that option - - so I can't throw her under the bus even though she did such a horrific act because I have (thankfully) never lived in her world/head.


Horribly sad story all the way around :(

[Breeze54]

9. I will ! Crack head? Coke head?

17 yr olds do have a soul and a conscience!
How do you know if she was 'panicked'?
This is inexcusable unless he/she has a history of mental illness.

[flying_monkeys]

13. The article said she was panicked.

"This time, she told them she saw the baby move her finger and she panicked and stabbed her."



This girl never caused trouble in school or in the neighborhood (see article) and no one knew she was pregant (see article) and I would venture to say, if her Daddy threatened to off the family a decade plus ago, mental health ummm "issues" might be present in his kid....


I won't throw a potentially mental health issue person under the wheels of the bus. I won't even suggest drugs had a play (hello? MN? Yeah, big drug land there) when MH is already on the table. I will instead resay that I think it is a tragedy all around, and I hope she gets some help to cope with what she has done (when the full BRUNT hits her).


She is 17. *I* was pretty damn stupid then, and no where NEAR grown up (and I didn't have her potential MH issues). I am not saying let her go loose and have more kids - - but I am saying, try to find compassion for her while she faces the legal system.

[Breeze54]

14. So what if the media said that?

I worked in a juvenile Detention facility as part of my internship in college and
I had 10 year olds that had shot their mothers in the head and laughed about it!
They 'panicked' too because they got caught. Human nature and intent is mind boggling.

[flying_monkeys]

16. So the ones you saw color the future ones to be?

Of those 10 year olds laughing, how many had MH issues/ really shitty homelives?


Is compassion such a rare commodity in your basket that you can't afford it to many?

[Breeze54]

18. I had and have great compassion for those kids.

Many had really shitty home lives, if you want to call it 'home'.

How dare you assume I didn't or don't have compassion for them.

That's the main reason I explored that profession!

I was telling what I saw and experienced and it wasn't pretty.

[Breeze54]

7. I saw this story today too and it said the father stabbed the baby 135 times.

:wtf: maybe the AP didn't have the facts (ya think?) when they posted the story?

In any event, was he/she on crack??? I don't care if she was or not!!

That's fucking insane and mind-boggling!!!!

[dysfunctional press]

8. how is it pre-meditated...?

reading the article, it doesn't sound like a premeditated act...unless they have some other evidence that's not being released to the press.

[Nevernose]

12. She brought a knife w/ her to the laundry room

She takes the laundry out, accidentally gives birth, and happens to have a knife with which to stab the baby? It's the knife that makes it premeditated, is my guess, and god only knows what she told the police after they caught her lying.

Plus, to be legally insane, you have to know that your actions are wrong. She cleaned up the mess, disposed of the corpse and the murder weapon, and then lied to police.

[dysfunctional press]

21. the article doesn't say anything about her bringing a knife with her.

and she doesn't have to be legally insane, just temporarily so...stabbing an infant 135 times might just qualify

[Nevernose]

24. How'd she stab the kid 135 times w/o a knife?

She used one of the many knives conveniently provided her by the laundry facility?

My personal experience has been that the prosecution is right on target 95% of the time (I used to work in the DA's office), and that experience leaves me with an admittedly knee-jerk reaction to charges filed.

But, to be fair, neither of us should rush to judgment on something like this. All we have to go on is the scanty first report of a local news outfit.

[dysfunctional press]

25. id didn't say she didn't have a knife(she obviously did)...

i said that the article doesn't say that she brought that knife with her-

as i stated in my original post, unless there's something that the article is leaving out(like bringing a knife with her for instance), there's nothing to indicate pre-meditation. the way the article is written, it also alludes to the idea that she didn't even know she was pregnant.

[flying_monkeys]

37. I agree. She might have left to go get the knife

which might kill that "premeditated" charge.

But even with "temporary insanity" she is going away for a good while....


What the heck was in her mind????? Has me struggling...

[mudesi]

10. If I was her lawyer, I'd go with 'temporary insanity' (nm)

[entanglement]

15. I usually stay away from crime threads but ...

Unless she's mentally ill (which I think is unlikely, as she was sane enough to lie about the baby being stillborn), she deserves to be locked up for a long time. I just don't see how you'd rehabilitate someone like this. I could understand if she abandoned the baby or something but this action reveals an utter lack of humanity. And no, the 'panicky 17 year old' excuse doesn't cut it.

[TwilightGardener]

19. Agree, if you're old enough to baby-sit, you're old enough to know NOT

to stab your baby to death. Age is not a factor. This was one sick, criminal pup.

[Breeze54]

20. Prisons are not there for rehab in America....

... anymore. That was the before Reagan thinking...
Now it's just toss the key away.

[dysfunctional press]

22. "utter lack of humanity"...? i don't see it that way.

remember, you're viewing the incident from your own perspective and through your own experiences...not from that of an obviously troubled young girl, which you know almost absolutely nothing about.

[entanglement]

26. Nah, that doesn't quite cut it

And the evidence: juries routinely have a bunch of people who don't share the life-perspective or experiences of the accused...but they are deemed fit to rule on the actions of the accused nonetheless. Of course, individuals have different standards for judging others so you may very well take a more lenient view of her than I do.

[dysfunctional press]

27. i just prefer to go with "innocent until PROVEN guilty"...

considering that i'm an American and all.

[entanglement]

29. Yes but

I'm not going to be on her jury, so I have the privilege of deeming her as guilty as I please BASED ON WHAT I KNOW and air that view here (which, incidentally, I find as American as anything else). You dig? :)

[dysfunctional press]

30. i dig- you're admitting to being a judgemental idiot to whom the facts don't matter?

got it. :hi:

[entanglement]

32. Ah, the name calling when nothing else works...

I don't see any point in prolonging the discussion...so I'll wish you a great day and leave it at that.

[dysfunctional press]

33. i was just interpretting what you admitted to.

in my opinion, you called yourself out.

[TahitiNut]

23. It was an accident.

:eyes:


Self-defense?

:eyes:

[Breeze54]

31. Yes, you are correct.

The baby had the audacity to fall on the damn knife 135 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But Mom or Dad.... was "distraught" or the neighbor or the freak next door....

Could be anybody that 'did' it and we shouldn't 'pre-judge', not knowing all the facts. :eyes:

I'm soooo worried about the "father/mother's" guilt and "false accusations"
(seems 'unfair' :sarcasm:) :eyes: that I actually forgot about the baby......NOT!!!!



Poor little thing................... :cry:

[WinkyDink]

34. Awful, awful, awful. And way more than "ick".

[BreweryYardRat]

35. *kick*