A Michigan woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her newborn twin sons in 2003.
According to People Magazine, 44-year-old Antoinette Briley of Holland, Michigan, pleaded guilty on Tuesday and was sentenced. She was arrested in December 2020, and after being detained, she confessed to her involvement in the babies’ deaths and to disposing of their bodies, according to Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Briley, who also has a daughter, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
The baby boys are said to have been killed shortly after they were born and one still had the placenta attached to him. Their bodies were dumped in a trash bin in an alley in Illinois. A waste management employee saw the babies in the lift bucket of her garbage truck on June 6, 2003. Autopsies revealed the boys were born alive and died of asphyxiation. However, detectives were unable to determine where the babies came from or who birthed them or killed them — and it would be 15 years before investigators took a second look at the case.
Detective Ginny Georgantas said she asked to have the investigation reopened due to the development of new genetic genealogy technology. Using DNA from Briley’s tossed cigarette butt, they were able to connect her to the twins.
When questioned, Briley, who was 24 at the time of the babies’ births and deaths, said she knew she was pregnant when she gave birth to the boys in a bathtub while alone at her grandfather’s house. The babies were crying “but not loud enough that the neighbors could hear,” she said.
Briley said she panicked and put the babies in a duffle bag to bring to the hospital. However, on the way, she realized that because no one knew she had given birth, “no one would ever have to know.” She decided to pull over and put the babies in a garbage can. She disposed of the duffle bag after returning to her grandfather’s house. Briley told detectives that “she wishes she could take the whole day back” and that she had gone to the hospital as she originally planned.
Comments on a 13 On Your Side Facebook post regarding the story show shock and horror. One person wrote, “I don’t know how a person could live with themselves after doing something like that…” Another wrote, “How could someone do that?” while another said, “Those poor, poor babies. They never had a chance to live. I hope she’s in prison for the rest of her miserable life!”
Yet, abortion was legal in Michigan in 2003, and in 2022, voters passed Proposal 3, which made abortion a “right” in the state constitution. It is unclear if Briley attempted to have an abortion or not, but if she had undergone an abortion rather than giving birth, her babies would have legally ended up in a medical waste bin and their deaths would have been celebrated as a “choice.”
