Ex-Manchester student charged with murder weighed abortion

NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. (AP) - A former Manchester University student charged with murder and neglect in the death of her newborn son had searched online for methods to have a home abortion, a court document says.

Mikayla Munn, 21, of Elkhart searched online for home abortion methods on Feb. 13, about three weeks before she gave birth in the bathtub of her dorm room on the North Manchester campus, a probable cause affidavit filed this week in Wabash Circuit Court said. She was arrested Monday.

Munn called 911 on March 8, saying she had just given birth and passed out, the affidavit said. She told first responders she had been unaware of her pregnancy and had taken a warm bath to ease menstrual cramps, it said.

However, she had sent a text message Oct. 12 to the man she believed to be the father of the child, saying she had learned she was pregnant about four months earlier, the affidavit said.

First responders who were called to Munn's dormitory room found her and the infant in the bathtub, and the child was not breathing, police have said.

An obstetrician and a forensic pathologist told investigators Munn was conscious when she gave birth and that the child had drawn a breath, the affidavit said. The child died from drowning and the death was ruled a homicide.

Munn is being held in the Wabash County Jail. Her trial has been set for Sept. 13. It's unclear whether she has an attorney who might comment on her behalf.

Munn dropped out of school shortly after the birth, university spokeswoman Anne Gregory said.