Christie Cole tried to kill the baby she was carrying by using illegal drugs during her pregnancy, she told officials, but that didn’t work.
So when the baby was born, Cole gave the little girl to a friend, who put the newborn under a mobile home on a cold day in the middle of October in Strasburg, according to court documents.
Cole and her friend, Jennifer Teeters, both 23, have been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of the newborn. Both are being held in the Arapahoe County Jail.
The newborn’s body was found Aug. 9 amid trash in the back of a Chevy truck at the Country Gardens Mobile Home Park.
According to a statement Teeters gave authorities, she admitted taking the baby “in a box covered with blankets” from Cole’s mobile home to hers. That’s when, she said, she heard the baby cry. She thought about taking the newborn to a church or hospital, “but she just couldn’t do it,” officials reported she told them.
Teeters told deputies she then took the baby back to Cole. Teeters said Cole asked her to put some trash under Cole’s mobile home, then take the trash and put it in Cole’s pickup with other trash. It was only later, Teeters said, that she was told the baby was in the trash.
Gregory Graf, Teeters’ attorney, declined to comment Tuesday.
Cole told authorities she gave the baby to Teeters, but Cole said Teeters then put the baby under the mobile home herself.
The baby was left there for an unknown amount of time, with no food and only a blanket to shield it from the cold.
Colorado law protects parents who drop off unwanted newborns at a hospital or fire station within 72 hours of birth.
June Korb, who manages the trailer park, said Tuesday that Teeters has lived there for several years without any problems. Cole lived there about 1 1/2 years, she said, and was typically late with the rent.
Korb said the two women were friends.
“It’s a pretty shocking thing,” Korb said. “You don’t expect something like that to happen in our own backyard.”
Staff writer Carlos Illescas can be reached at 303-820-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
