(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) – A grand jury recently indicted the two local residents who were charged with abandoning an infant’s body at Pertle Springs. The indictment adds a murder charge against the baby’s mother.
Latasha M. Wilson was originally charged with abandonment of a corpse. However, following the results of an autopsy that revealed the baby was “born alive, and in fact, took a breath(s),” Wilson was indicted for second-degree murder, a class A felony; first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, a class C felony; and abandonment of a corpse, a class D felony, according to a news release from Johnson County Prosecutor Lynn Stoppy.
Zackary R. Carter was indicted for tampering with physical evidence, a class D felony, according to court records.
The indictments were filed Friday.
Two University of Central Missouri students discovered the infant’s burned body March 4 among some trash in a research cave at Pertle Springs.
Wilson gave birth to the baby boy in her employer’s restroom toilet on Jan. 29, according to the news release.
The baby was born alive, and Wilson did not immediately remove the baby from the water or seek medical care. She spent about three hours in the bathroom, wrapped the baby, which was 18½ inches long, in paper towels and placed him insider her locker, according to the news release.
Wilson said she and Carter took the baby to a cave at Pertle Springs “to dispose of the baby inside of the cave,” according to court records.
Carter later returned to the cave and burned the body to try and destroy evidence, according to court records.
No hearings or trial date have been set for Wilson. She is in the Johnson County Jail on a $250,000 bond.
Carter is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. June 9 at the Johnson County Justice Center in Warrensburg.