Police investigating tiny remains found in Md. turn attention to mother's bruises

OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) -- Investigators were trying to determine Tuesday why a woman accused of killing her baby had bruises on her body when she was found bleeding last week.

Police say Christy Freeman, 37, had bruises on her legs, stomach and forearm. She told police she was not pregnant, but changed her story to say she had given birth to a deformed baby, calling it "gloopity glop."

A 26-week-old male fetus was found wrapped in a bloody towel under her bathroom sink. According to charging documents, the fetus was not deformed.

Freeman was being held without bond Tuesday, as investigators continued to excavate the grounds at her home in a search that has turned up four tiny sets of remains, including the 26-week-old male fetus.

Ocean City Police Chief Bernadette DiPino said investigators want to know what caused Freeman's bruises.

"We're going to bring in a domestic violence expert to determine, could it be self-inflicted? Could it be from someone else? Could it have been an accident?" DiPino said.

Police spokesman Barry Neeb said interviews with Freeman led police to believe she caused the stillbirth. They also have not said whether they believe she was responsible for the other three sets of remains.

Freeman was charged with murder under a state law that allows murder prosecutions of those who cause the death of a fetus that may have been able to survive outside the womb.

Her boyfriend, Raymond W. Godman Jr., was not a suspect Tuesday. Police said he and the couple's four children were staying with a friend. It could not immediately be determined where he was staying.

Investigators found two sets of the remains wrapped in plastic in a trunk and another in a small recreational vehicle parked in Freeman's yard. Police believe all the remains belong to Freeman.

The search Tuesday did not turn up any new remains by midafternoon. The excavation should wrap up Wednesday, Neeb said.

News of the discoveries may have sparked overnight vandalism at a taxi company the couple owned. At the Classic Taxi, four classic cars, including a 1963 Ford Fairlane, had busted windshields or windows.

"It's probably ... the result of somebody, you know, taking offense to the action she's accused of," State Police Detective Sgt. Mitch Frey said. Police had no suspects, he said.

DiPino urged calm in this resort city of 7,000 that has not seen a murder since 2002.

"We don't want people jumping to any conclusions," she said. "We just need people to let the justice system take its course and not take matters into their own hands."

The Department of Social Services had been called to the couple's home before, Neeb said, but he couldn't say when or why. A telephone message left with the department was not immediately returned Tuesday.

Neighbors told The Associated Press that the couple's children were unkempt, sometimes going without coats in the winter. Other cabbies in town contacted by the AP described Freeman as untidy and unpleasant, though none seemed to know she had been pregnant recently.

Freeman professed her innocence in a bail hearing Monday but didn't offer an explanation for the set of four remains, all of which police presume to be hers.

She awaits an Aug. 27 preliminary hearing. A lawyer who represented Freeman at her bond hearing has stopped representing her, and the court clerk's office said she has not obtained a new attorney.