Trial starts in death of Baby Mary
Fayette County jurors will have to wade through medical testimony and conflicting statements in the 2000 death of a newborn child who was found in a creek, and became known as “Baby Mary.” Warren Bircher, 35, of Adah is on trial for criminal homicide, concealing the death of a child and other charges. District Attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. said in his opening statement Monday that Bircher killed the baby after Sarah Sue Hawk gave birth to her sometime in late May 2000.
Two fishermen found the infant’s body, wrapped in plastic bags and a flannel shirt, inside a book bag in Cove Run Creek in North Union Township on June 4, 2000.
Defense attorney Jack W. Connor said that Bircher would take the stand on his own behalf and deny having anything to do with the death – or Hawk, who told investigators she had a sexual relationship with him.
At the time, Bircher was her brother-in-law.
After the case went unsolved for several years, investigators were able to match DNA from the baby to Hawk, 26, who was arrested in November 2008. She has since pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in exchange for her cooperation, and will testify against Bircher this week.
Connor asked jurors to pay particular attention to testimony from Hawk, whom he said gave eight different statements to police since the baby’s body was found.
The first of those occurred in 2000, and Hawk, then age 16, denied having a child and gave investigators the name of another girl who was pregnant at the time.
After her arrest in November 2008, Connor said Hawk told police that she gave birth in her parents’ home, thought the baby was dead and wrapped the body up and took it to the creek herself.
It wasn’t until subsequent interviews that she said she had sex with Bircher, and was afraid the child was his, Connor said.
He told jurors that Bircher would take the stand and offer testimony, not only that he did not killed the baby, but that he even knew Hawk was pregnant, and never had sex with her.
“If you hear all of the evidence in the case, you’re not going to have a question he did not have anything to do with it,” Connor said.
Heneks said in his opening that he would seek a first-degree murder conviction, meaning that “Baby Mary” was killed with premeditation and malice. He said that killing the newborn was “the essence” of malice.
“This is a sad case of a child with a full life to live, and within moments of birth, that life was extinguished by the actions of the defendant,” he said.
Heneks said commonwealth witness Timothy Reckner would recount a chilling conversation with Bircher, whom he didn’t known at the time, before news of the baby’s death surfaced.
During that conversation, Heneks said Reckner told police that Bircher said he was going to drown the baby like an animal in the creek when it was born.
Although the conversation reportedly occurred in 2000, Reckner did not talk to police about it until 2008, when he was in prison.
The conversation occurred around the time Hawk was arrested.
Heneks also said that Hawk said told police that the father of the baby was either a black man or Bircher. DNA testing later proved Bircher was not the child’s father, according to testimony from state police Trooper James A. Pierce.
Jurors also will hear from forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, who previously testified that the baby was born alive.
Connor said that Wecht can only base that conclusion on statements from other people involved in the case. He cautioned jurors to listen to the witnesses upon whom Wecht based his findings to determine if those witnesses are credible.
“There is no medical explanation one way or another what happened to this child,” Connor said.
Hawk has previously testified she did not hear the baby cry, but said Bircher told her the child was alive after she delivered her.
The trial will resume today before Judge John F. Wagner Jr.