PITTSBURGH -- The body of a high school student's baby boy -- likely stillborn -- was found in the young mother's Hill District apartment building on Thursday morning.
Pittsburgh Police Bureau spokeswoman Diane Richard said the 16-year-old girl gave birth on Wednesday night. At Brashear High School the next day, she told other students she had given birth and "put the baby in a bin," Richard said. Word began to spread around the school, and police were eventually informed.
"I'm shocked. I'm scared for her and her family," neighbor Ashley Yates said. "I don't want to see nothing like this happen to nobody else again, because I can't believe she had the baby on her own."
City police searched a second-floor apartment where the girl lives in a complex on Reed Roberts Place and saw the body of a newborn baby boy in some towels in a drawer-type of bin.
"The baby was not term -- a very, very small child," said Richard, who added that it's not believed the child was alive at birth.
The baby was 24 weeks old and never took a breath, and had it been born alive, it only would have lived for 30 seconds, Richard said.
The Allegheny County medical examiner has completed an autopsy and will wait for test results of toxicology, blood and tissue samples before ruling on the cause and manner of the baby's death.
No charges have been filed while the police investigation continues. The teenage mother was taken to the school counselor's office before going to Children's Hospital to be examined.
Related: "Safe Haven" Info For New MothersYates told Mayo that the 16-year-old girl lives with her father and a 17-year-old sister, who also had a baby recently. The neighbor also said that the 16-year-old wasn't showing her pregnancy.
"Somebody had to know, you know? They all share a room, all the girls. Somebody had to know. Somebody just didn't come forward and say nothing," Yates said.
Family members have told police they were not aware of the 16-year-old's pregnancy.
"Not until this, when we found the baby, then did they find this out," Richard said.
Because of the ongoing police investigation, school administrators are making no comment at this time, said a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh Public Schools.
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