A woman in Georgia was arrested this week after allegedly putting the body of her miscarried baby into a dumpster. She is charged with concealing the death of another person and one count of throwing away or abandoning a dead body.
Selena Maria Chandler-Scott was found unconscious and bleeding by EMS. On the tip of a witness, police located the remains of her 19-week preborn baby in a bag in a dumpster nearby. According to a press release from the Tifton, Georgia police department, Chandler-Scott suffered a miscarriage. She was brought to a hospital for treatment and was not immediately charged.
The baby showed no signs of injury or trauma and was found to have never taken a breath.
Previable Baby Olivia at 18 weeks after fertilization (20 weeks LMP) (Image credit Live Action)
Although media outlets are blaming the state’s pro-life law, that law was not the reason the woman was arrested.
In Georgia, concealing the death of a person is a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 if the concealment prevents authorities from learning if the person was killed unlawfully. Georgia code also prohibits a person from throwing away or abandoning a dead human body, which is also a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.
The story is similar to that of Brittany Watts, an Ohio woman who was arrested in 2023 after she attempted to flush the body of her second trimester miscarried child down the toilet. She was charged with abuse of a corpse but a grand jury refused to indict her.
