North Carolina Teen Accused of Stabbing Her Newborn Generates Facebook Support, Disgust
Sixteen-year-old Rebecca Blackmore is charged with murdering her baby daughter.
June 23, 2011 — -- A North Carolina teenager has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of her newborn baby girl, prompting a flood of Facebook messages expressing everything from support to disgust.
"no matter what people say youre still the girl that used to stay up all night with me on the computer editing our myspace pages," one friend wrote. "im here and nobody is gonna change my mind about you."
Wrote another person: "how can you feel sorry for that girl and defend her?!?! ur crazy!"
Rebecca Blackmore, 16, of Knotts Island went to the emergency room of the Chesapeake General Hospital June 17 and said she had given birth to a baby girl, that the baby had died and that she left the body in her bedroom closet, according to a news release from the Currituck County Sheriff's Office.
When police arrived at Blackmore's home, they found the baby's body in the closet.
A medical examiner in Greenville determined Monday that "the baby was alive at birth and survived only for a very short period of time and the death was caused by multiple stab wounds," according to Sheriff Susan Johnson's news release.
When ABC News called Blackmore's home, her mother, Barbara Jo Blackmore, answered the phone but hung up without commenting.
A student at Currituck County High School, Blackmore recently completed her sophomore year. She lists Sonic Drive-Thru as her employer on her Facebook page and writes about loving her life, boyfriend, friends and family.
She keeps track month by month of how long she and boyfriend Michael Derosier have been together. In her "About Me" section, she writes about Derosier, "It's been more than a year, and I still find myself loving you more and more everyday."
Derosier has not been charged in connection with the crime.
North Carolina is one of the many states with a Safe Haven law that allows people to leave a baby up to a week old with an employee at "any hospital, health care center, local or district health department or at a nonprofit community health center."
A baby can also be left with social services, law enforcement, EMS or "any responsible adult in North Carolina."
Blackmore is being held on $500,000 bond, according to ABC affiliate WVEC, and is scheduled to appear in court on the first-degree murder charge Monday.