Details revealed about mother's bathroom births

BELLEVILLE -- A southern Illinois woman accused of trying to drown her baby in a toilet last year also gave birth in a bathroom in 2007 to a baby whose decomposed remains were found last week in a drawer in her basement, court records show.

Authorities have not yet pinpointed what caused the death of the baby found in the drawer in the Belleville home of Elyse Mamino. No one has been charged in that St. Clair County case and officials are still investigating.

Prosecutors in nearby Monroe County last week charged Mamino with attempted first-degree murder, alleging that in November she delivered a baby girl in a Columbia home's bathroom during a family party before trying to drown the newborn in the toilet.

That baby, identified in the criminal complaint as Victoria Goodrich, was rescued and is under another relative's care.

Mamino has pleaded not guilty and is in Monroe County jail on $250,000 bond, awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 19. Her attorney, John O'Gara, did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The News-Democrat, citing its court-allowed review Tuesday of juvenile records related to custody issues involving baby Victoria, reported that Mamino delivered a baby in September 2007. That baby's remains were found last Thursday in a chest of drawers in Mamino's basement, the newspaper said.

Police made that grisly discovery while investigating accusations that Mamino tried to drown baby Victoria. Mamino had been caring for baby Victoria since the infant was released from the hospital, less than two weeks after the alleged attempted murder. State child-welfare officials removed her from Mamino's custody after the arrest last week.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has declined to discuss why a caseworker returned Victoria to Mamino despite the objections of police investigating the alleged drowning attempt.

Charles Stegmeyer, an attorney for Mamino's boyfriend, 29-year-old Ed Goodrich, said his client is "very upset" about baby Victoria being taken into state custody and placed with another relative.

"What we're trying to do is we're trying to get the child back from Children and Family Services," Stegmeyer said.

Stegmeyer said Goodrich told him Mamino was a good mother.

"He and his girlfriend were together for those three months (since the alleged drowning attempt) and he said she exhibited a great, motherly attitude," the attorney said. "He was shocked when DCFS came in there. Now he's totally shocked about all these things."

A hearing on Victoria's custody is scheduled for March 17.