Husband of Woman Who Allegedly Stole Baby Through Craigslist Ad Thought His Wife Was Pregnant
Police said the husband arrived home to take his wife to a prenatal check up.
— -- The husband of the Colorado woman accused of luring a pregnant woman to her home with a Craigslist ad for baby clothes and stealing her fetus told police that he thought his wife was pregnant.
According to the arrest report, suspect Dynel Lane's husband David Ridley told officers that he came home early Wednesday afternoon to take his wife to a prenatal check-up appointment.
He told officers that he first arrived home at 2:15 p.m. and as he was headed to the basement -- where the woman, identified by her family as Michelle Wilkins, had just been attacked -- when Lane came around a corner and saw the floor covered in blood. She told him that she had just miscarried and the baby was in the upstairs bathtub.
Ridley ran upstairs and "found a small baby lying in the bathtub," the police report states. "He rubbed the baby slightly then rolled it over to hear and see it take a gasping breath."
Ridley rushed with the child and Lane to Longmont United Hospital where she was taken to the emergency room with the baby in her arms, the arrest report states.
What Ridley appears not to have known is that while he was at the house, Wilkins, 26, was bleeding on a bed in the basement of the home. He has not been charged in connection to the incident.
Lane's daughters were interviewed by police and one told investigators that their mother had shown them an ultrasound in December that she said was the baby boy that she was pregnant with at the time, according to the police report.
Police also found a bill on the kitchen counter from the hospital that was addressed to Lane, and though no further details about that payment letter were released, it indicates that she may have been treated at the same facility where Lane and Ridley went with the baby.
When Lane was at the hospital on Wednesday, however, the arrest report states that she refused to let the hospital staff examine her. The report states that she then "admitted" to a police officer "that she cut [the victim's] abdomen open to remove."
Lane, 34, was registered with the state as having an expired nurses' aide license. When the victim was transported to the hospital after calling 911 at 2:39 p.m., she was examined by a doctor in the emergency room who told police that the incision in her abdomen "appeared to be well performed," the police report states.
The doctor "stated the person who did the incision would have to have researched the subject of Cesarean births in books or on-line to achieve the level of accuracy," the police report states.
Lane is charged with attempted first-degree murder, first degree assault, and child abuse resulting in death, though more charges may be added in relation to the death of the child.
"Under Colorado law essentially there's no way that murder charges can be brought unless ...[it is] established that the fetus lived outside the mother," District Attorney Stan Garnett said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
The police report cites hospital staff as saying that the baby "was approximately seven months old and would have been viable."
The Associated Press confirmed that Lane made her first court appearance today and was advised of the charges against her. Her bail was set at $2 million.
Lane has not had to enter a plea and the Associated Press reports that her lawyer has asked for an expert to be present while the state performs an autopsy, scheduled for tomorrow, on the baby. The results of the autopsy may determine if Lane faces a homicide charge.
Wilkins' family released a statement Thursday, saying in part: "We grieve for the many victims of this senseless attack, but mostly for a precious child whose life was ended before she had a chance to live."
ABC News' Clayton Sandell contributed to this report.