IOWA CITY, Iowa – An Iowa woman allegedly gave birth in a University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics bathroom, then tried to flush the baby down the toilet because she thought it was stillborn.
The incident happened Sunday, May 8, 2016, in a restroom at the John Colloton Pavilion. A criminal complaint filed in Johnson County states 22-year-old Ashley Hautzenrader, of Davenport, Iowa, entered the bathroom and delivered a baby in the toilet.
Hautzenrader said she did not know she was pregnant when she entered the restroom, and thought the baby was dead because it didn’t cry, the complaint said. She tried flushing the baby down the toilet, but then put the baby in a pillowcase, which she placed in the trash can.
The complaint says she cleaned the bathroom and then left.
UIHC employees later found the baby, and it was alive.
Officers were able to locate Hautzenrader and she allegedly admitted to putting the baby in the trash, claiming she thought the child was dead. She also told them she wasn’t aware she was pregnant.
State court records from May of 2015 show an order establishing paternity and support awarded to Hautzenrader for another child.
She now faces one count of child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.
