Mass. prosecutors: Dead babies found clothed

UXBRIDGE, Mass. — At least two of the three babies whose skeletal remains were found in a filthy Massachusetts home may have been alive “for some period of time” before they were found, prosecutors said in court on Tuesday.

Both bodies were found wearing diapers and one-piece infant outfits in closets in the vermin-infested Blackstone home, assistant district attorney John Bradley said at a pretrial hearing for Erika Murray in Uxbridge District Court.

Murray, 31, of Blackstone, had been held without bail since her arraignment last month on charges of fetal death concealment, witness intimidation and permitting substantial injury to a child.

A judge on Tuesday ordered Murray held on $1 million cash bail. A prosecutor had asked for $5 million cash bail.

The state Department of Children and Families removed four children ranging in age from 6 months to 13 years from Murray’s home in August after her 10-year-old son went to a neighbor’s house and asked for help in quieting a crying baby.

The neighbor found the youngest child covered in feces and a 3-year-old child. After interviewing the older children, police got a search warrant and went back to the house, where they found the skeletal remains of one baby with a full head of hair in a backpack in the closet of an upstairs bedroom.

After discovering those remains, police obtained another search warrant. During the second search, they found the remains of two other babies in another bedroom, also inside a closet.

The state medical examiner is trying to determine whether they were newborns or fetuses.

Murray’s attorney, Keith Halpern, has said he believes Murray is suffering from a mental illness.

No birth records could be found for the two youngest children. Halpern said previously that he believes Murray secretly gave birth to those children because her boyfriend didn’t want any more kids than the two they already had together, the 10-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl.

A pediatrician found that Murray’s two youngest surviving children, girls aged 5 months and 3 years, had been “profoundly neglected” and “severely malnourished,” authorities said.

Murray’s boyfriend, Ramon Rivera, has not been charged in connection with the discovery of the infants’ remains, but faces drug charges for allegedly growing marijuana in the home’s basement. He, too, has a court appearance Tuesday.

A clerk at Uxbridge District Court said Rivera does not have a lawyer listed in his file.

The Blackstone Board of Health condemned the house where Murray, Rivera and the children lived and are planning to demolish it later this month. Authorities said it contained piles of dirty diapers, trash and the remains of dead animals.