By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – Bombshell developments in the case of Mikayla Munn, the 21-year-old former Manchester University student who, police say, gave birth and then murdered her newborn in her MU dorm room on the evening of March 8th. According to newly filed supplemental case reports and affidavits of probable cause, police say that Munn conducted internet searches on “home abortions” and “ways to cut the umbilical cord of a baby” in the weeks leading up to the birth of her child on March 8th. The court filings also show an apparent lack of feelings or emotion about her dead newborn when safety officers arrived. In fact, the supplemental case report states that Munn even joked and laughed to officers, commenting about her bathtub birth “at least I got to the bathroom.”
According to a supplemental case report, when officers arrived at Munn’s dorm room, they found her holding the dead baby boy wrapped up in a towel. She told officers several times that she didn’t know she was pregnant and she thought she was just having “strong cramping” and “bloating” around the time of the incident. When asked about the baby in her arms, she apparently told police that, last time she checked, he wasn’t breathing and that he was “cold.”
Officers reported in recently filed court documents that the bathtub was still filled with bloody water when they arrived. She claimed that she had passed out in the tub and when she awoke the baby was born and lying on the bottom of the bathtub submerged in water. When asked about how she tied off the umbilical cord with a shoelace, she mentioned that she knew what to do because she had “read it somewhere.” The supplemental case report goes on to say that Munn fainted when talking to officers by the bathtub, causing her to drop the deceased newborn into the tub. The paramedics on scene noticed how the baby wrapped up in the towel floated on the surface of the water. Paramedic Andrew Metzger also noticed how quickly Munn came to after she fainted, essentially saying that she was not truly fainting at all.
When safety officers comment that she must have been in shock at the childbirth, Munn allegedly agrees that she wasn’t prepared and then laughs. She was then taken to the Kosciusko Community Hospital and, on the way, she apparently admits to looking up pregnancy-related issues on her phone. She commented that several pregnancy tests came up negative. She also admitted, according to the case report, that she did not attempt CPR on the dead newborn. This is despite taking a CPR class in connection to her Physical Education coursework at Manchester University.
After police looked at her cell phone, they discovered that Munn had allegedly texted a boyfriend that he was the father of the child. Another text reveals that Munn allegedly texted contacted another man, saying that HE was the father. Subsequently, she conducted internet searches on home abortions and cutting umbilical cords, police say. In fact, police allege that she googled “bubble outside of the vagina” when the baby’s head crowned during childbirth. Police filings say that she waited a full 19 minutes after giving birth before calling police.
Police talked to Dr. Timothy F. Cook, an OBGYN based in Kosciusko County, who said that newborn babies would not sink to the bottom of a bathtub. Instead, he told police that newborns float. He also noted that women don’t normally pass out during childbirth absent some significant medical event such as a pulmonary embolism. An autopsy of the deceased newborn revealed that the baby had liquid in his stomach but air in his lungs. This indicates to authorities that the child was alive and breathing after childbirth. The official cause of death was ruled as asphyxia due to drowning.
Tonight, Munn sits in the Wabash County Jail facing Murder and Neglect of a Dependent charges. She was arrested in Elkhart on May 2nd and transported to Wabash County on May 3rd. She entered a plea of not guilty Wednesday morning in the Wabash Circuit Court.
The investigation was spearheaded by the Indiana State Police Dective Joshua Maller and North Manchester Police Department Detective Jon Pace.
Munn’s jury trial has been set for September 13th and 8:30 am in the Wabash Circuit Court. A pre-trial conference has been set for August 15th at 1 pm.