Police find baby's remains in Belleville

COLUMBIA -- Authorities investigating a 23-year-old teacher's aide accused of trying to drown her newborn girl in a toilet at a house party last November have found the decomposed remains of another infant at her Belleville home.

The dead child apparently had been at Elyse Mamino's home for more than a year, said Belleville Police Capt. Don Sax, who declined additional comment pending the investigation's completion and a review by St. Clair County prosecutors. No charges in the child's death had been filed as of Monday.

Police called the case additionally troubling because they say state child-welfare officials let Mamino keep custody of her surviving girl from the time the baby was released from the hospital in December until Mamino's arrest last week.

"This is a very disturbing case," said Columbia Police Chief Joe Edwards.

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokesman Kendall Marlowe refused to discuss those claims, calling them a matter of "pending investigation." The surviving child is in an unnamed relative's care, Marlowe said.

The agency "had no contact with this family prior to this investigation," Marlowe said.

Mamino has been charged in this St. Louis suburb with attempted first-degree murder in connection with last November's attempted drowning. She remained jailed Monday on $250,000 bond, and it was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney.

Mamino was at a house party in November when she gave birth in a bathroom, Edwards said. There was no evidence she had a miscarriage, he said, pointing to the criminal complaint alleging that she "placed her newborn infant, face down in a toilet bowl containing water, while the infant was gasping for air and kicking her legs."

Someone at the party called police, first reporting the infant as dead, Edwards said. But emergency responders, with help from a bystander, managed to revive the girl by the time she arrived at the hospital, Edwards said.

The baby was hospitalized for about two weeks. The child remained in Mamino's custody despite investigators "airing concerns" that the mother perhaps tried to kill the girl, Edwards said.

Authorities obtained an arrest warrant last Thursday accusing Mamino in the attempted drowning, attributing the length of the probe to the need to interview witnesses and get lab results, Edwards said. He would not elaborate.

It is not clear whether the surviving girl sustained any brain damage from the would-be drowning, Edwards said.

The chief waved off questions about Mamino's mental history, saying "it wouldn't be fair for me to say."

Mamino worked as a teacher's aide in Belleville for autistic children, Edwards said.