Mom-to-Be Darlene Haynes Killed, Cops Search for Her Fetus

July 29, 2009— -- Police in Worcester, Mass., are searching for a fetus that was ripped from her mother's womb in a gruesome attack.

Darlene Haynes' mutilated body was found wrapped in bedding in a closet in her Southgate Street apartment Monday. She was eight months pregnant at the time of her death, police said, and they believe the body has been in the closet since Thursday.

At 8 months, there is a chance the fetus could still be alive, sending police on a frantic search in and around Worcester, about a 45-minute drive from Boston. Hazelhurst described the neighborhood where Haynes lived as "working class."

"We're searching everywhere," Worcester Police Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst told ABCNews.com today. "There's many places where this child could be."

Hayne's great-aunt, Sanrda Grandmaison, told ABCNews.com that the baby was a little girl, due late next month.

"The name was going to be a surprise to us," she said.

The baby would have been Haynes' fourth daughter. She left behind Jasmine, 5, and Lilli, 3, who were being raised by Haynes' grandmother, and Christina, 1, who Haynes had custody of.

While the police have not yet named a suspect in the murder, Grandmaison said Darlene Haynes had problems with two men, her ex-boyfriend Roberto Rodriquez and her landlord William Thompson, who discovered her body.

Haynes had taken out a restraining order against Rodriguez, the father of the unborn child and her daughter Christina, more than three weeks ago. Grandmaison said Rodriguez had been abusive to her and to her grandmother, threatening to kill her grandmother if she tried to take custody of Christina.

Grandmaison said Thompson would sometimes let himself into her apartment unannounced. "He was just literally harassing her," she said.

But whoever killed Haynes and cut out her fetus, Grandmaison said, knew what they were doing. Christina, she said, was not found in the home with her mother's body and Worcester police have refused to tell her where they found the little girl.

"It was planned," she said. "It was worked out very carefully. They knew enough to take the baby out of the house."

Christina, she said, is now in the custody of Haynes' mother.

Grandmaison described Haynes as a loving mother who was friendly to strangers, and, she said, was severely developmentally disabled as a result of abuse as a young child.

Grandmaison estimated that Haynes functioned as a 12- or 13-year-old would- and had a hard time holding down a job.

But she loved her children, she said, adding that Haynes "never forgot the kids' birthdays, never forgot Christmas."