US woman sentenced to 50 years in jail for drowning her newborn in bathtub to hide drugs

A 24-year-old woman from Iowa in the United States was sentenced to 50 years in prison after she was found guilty of drowning her daughter in a bathtub. The woman, Taylor Blaha was apprehensive that the authorities would find drugs in her blood and would remove custody of their older child. Blaha pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and asked that she be sentenced at once. She has to serve 70 per cent of the sentence, which amounts to 35 years, before becoming eligible for parole, according to a report by New York Post. Blaha’s boyfriend, Brandon Thoma, 31, also pleaded guilty last month to child endangerment resulting in death and abuse of a corpse. The police revealed both of them held their newborn daughter underwater in a half-filled bathtub to stifle her cries, before stuffing her body into a backpack and discarding it in a wooded area. The police could not recover the baby’s remains. Blaha told police that she was using methamphetamine at the time of her delivery on November 16, 2022, and both she and her boyfriend feared that child services would get to know and they would lose custody of their 2-year-old son. An affidavit obtained by NBC affiliate WHO13 reveals that Blaha gave birth to a baby girl on 16 November in the bathroom of her home in the 900 block of Central Avenue. She reportedly asked Thoma, who was in the bedroom, for methamphetamines to ease her pain after giving birth to the baby, who they named Kayleen Lee Blaha. The baby was born alive, “crying, moving its arms and legs, and opening her eyes allowing Blaha to see that Kayleen had brown eyes.” Blaha told law enforcement that she planned to give the baby to her sister but became concerned that the neighbours would hear the cries and call law enforcement, according to the Independent. The media outlet further reported that the police also found searches on the suspects’ devices on how to induce miscarriages. “During her interview, Blaha confirmed with Detective Stringer that she and Thoma took actions towards an attempt to cause a miscarriage; however, did so unsuccessfully,” the affidavit reads. “Communication between Blaha and Thoma, as viewed through their cellular devices, confirms conversations about where Thoma claims to have discarded Kayleen’s body,” police said.