Iowa Parents Accused of Drowning Newborn Daughter in Bathtub Moments After Birth

An Iowa father and mother are accused of drowning their newborn daughter in the bathtub moments after the child was born.

Brandon Thoma, 31, and Taylor Blaha, 24, were charged on December 7 with first-degree murder, according to the Fort Dodge Police Department. Thoma is also facing an abuse of corpse charge.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law & Crime, Blaha told an employee with the Iowa Department of Human Resources on November 22 she had given birth but that the infant was buried in an undisclosed location. The worker then called the authorities, who started investigating.

When detectives interviewed Blaha, she told them that she found out she was pregnant in April and that she gave birth to the baby on November 16 in the bathroom of an apartment on 927 Central Avenue, Fort Dodge, where they resided.

The 24-year-old noted she had no intentions of keeping the baby and planned to allow her sister to adopt it.

Thoma, who was in the apartment at the time, and Blaha named the baby Kayleen Lee. Blaha then asked Thoma to bring her methamphetamine to alleviate the pain from giving birth, according to the complaint.

Blaha told investigators that she and Thoma became nervous when the baby started crying, fearing the infant might alert neighbors, who would call the authorities.

To stop the crying, the two parents allegedly placed Kayleen in the bathtub and drowned her, ultimately killing her.

According to the complaint:

Thoma removed the baby from the bathtub and sat her outside of the tub before ultimately placing her in a plastic storage container, wrapping her in multiple layers of trash bags, and then placing her inside of a black backpack that he carried her out of the apartment.

Blaha told investigators that the 31-year-old did not return with Kayleen in the backpack.

Thoma later told investigators that they both feared that if authorities found the methamphetamine in the baby’s system, their two-year-old child — whom they also shared — would be taken away.

Authorities have not yet located Kayleen’s body, but an umbilical cord was found in the apartment when a search warrant was conducted on November 23. The couple told detectives that Thoma cut Kayleen’s umbilical cord with scissors after Blaha gave birth.

Residents of Fort Dodge hope Kayleen is found so she can be given a dignified burial.

“This baby needs to be found so it could be put to peace,” resident Leslie Mikesell told Local 5.

Fort Dodge Police Capt. Dennis Quinn told the local outlet that investigators are still searching for the infant.

“We have searched a couple places outside of city limits [of] Fort Dodge, we’ve also searched the landfill which I know that was put out to a lot of people,” Quinn said.

“We have also searched wooded areas in Fort Dodge, obviously it was put out that we are checking the area of where this all took place,” he added.

A judge set Thoma’s bond at $1,000,000 for the murder charge, with an additional $50,000 added for the abuse of corpse charge. Blaha’s bond was also set at $1,000,000 for the murder charge.

The punishment for being convicted of first-degree murder in Iowa is life in prison without the possibility of parole. There is no capital punishment in the state.

You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.