Authorities have charged two teenagers with involuntary manslaughter and abuse of a corpse following the discovery of an infant’s body in a makeshift grave in Columbus, Ohio. The announcement was made by officials on Monday.
The suspects, a 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy, were taken into custody after police were called to investigate reports of a buried infant in the 4000 block of Karl Road, located in the North Linden neighborhood.
Columbus Division of Police officers responded to the scene shortly after 1 p.m. and were directed to a “shallow grave.” There, they found the remains of a baby girl, identified in court documents only by her initials, A.Z.
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office confirmed the infant’s death, as stated in a police news release.
Homicide detectives from CPD have launched a thorough investigation. They discovered that the teenage parents, who reside on the city’s west side, had kept the pregnancy a secret.
“After the infant’s death, the teens buried her at the Karl Road location,” according to details provided in an incident report.
Details on how the baby died or how long she had been buried were not immediately available. The suspects have not been publicly identified.
Columbus Police Sgt. Joe Albert told local CBS station WBNS that a large police presence at a high school on Karl Road Monday evening was connected to the incident.
The investigation is ongoing, officials said.
