A Colorado woman is in critical but stable condition today after being beaten and having her baby taken out of her by a stranger on Wednesday.
Michelle Wilkins was seven months pregnant when she entered the home of Dynel Lane, whom she met on Craigslist. Lane admitted to attacking Wilkins, and performing a Caesarean section.
Lane, 34, posed as a seller of baby clothes to lure Wilkins to her split-level home in Longmont, and attacked her with a knife.
"Dynel admitted to Detective Stacey Graham that she cut [the] abdomen open to remove [the victim's] baby," a police report read.
Law enforcement officials were summoned when Lane and her husband, David Ridley, presented the deceased newborn at Longmont United Hospital with "no visual signs of vaginal bleeding coming from Dynel or any signs of having recently given birth."
Wilkins, 26, was still at Lane's house, and was able to call 911.
The emergency room surgeon who treated Wilkins noted that the Caesarean section "appeared to be well performed."
"The person who did the incision would have to have researched the subject of cesarean births in books or online to achieve the level of accuracy," the doctor said, according to a police report.
CNN reported that Lane became a certified nurse's aide in 2010, and her license expired two years later.
Her family believed she was expecting a baby boy, and her husband came home that afternoon to take her to a doctor's appointment. When he arrived, he found his wife covered in blood, and claiming that she had miscarried.
Ridley found the baby in a bathtub upstairs.
"He rubbed the baby slightly then rolled it over to ... see it take a gasping breath," the police report said.
In addition to having two teenage daughters, Lane had a 19-month-old son who drowned in a pond in 2002.
She faces charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and child abuse resulting in death. Unlawful termination of a pregnancy and murder charges are also being considered. Lane is being held on $2 million bond.
