UNNAMED NEWBORN (Found dead in backpack) - stillborn (2010)/ Convicted: Mother; Emma Lynn Clemens - Boyne MI

The Boyne City Police Department says the mother of a dead newborn baby found in a backpack is a local woman.Authorities haven't released her name or age but say the woman allegedly gave birth to the infant this summer while she and her family were visiting with relatives in Taylor Michigan.The investigation has been turned over to the Taylor Police Department.
This all stems from an incident on Tuesday afternoon when a person brought in a foul smelling backpack they found in the bushes of a yard in Boyne City. They brought it to the police department and when it was opened authorities found a newborn baby wrapped in bags.An autopsy and toxicology report is still pending.

A woman with Taylor connections is now involved with a shocking find in Boyne City. Police discovered a backpack with the body of a newborn baby inside. Police aren’t saying much about the case. They’re waiting for a report from investigators in Northern Michigan, but it certainly is a case they’re not taking lightly. In the midst of mourning a fallen auxiliary officer, the Taylor Police Department now has a new investigation on its hands. It’s the death of a baby found hidden in a backpack of all things. “An individual brought in a backpack that had a very foul odor, and when (the officer) looked in the backpack, there were some plastic bags,” said Charlevoix County Prosecutor John Jarema. He says among the plastic and bag found in some Boyne City bushes was an infant. An autopsy will now determine how the child died and if it was criminal. “If it was a stillbirth, then it’s a different set of circumstances then if it was a live birth and abandoned and killed,” Jarema said. Investigators believe the baby’s mother was from Boyne City, but gave birth to the child while visiting relatives in Taylor over the summer. Police here are now in charge of the case because the thought is the baby likely died in Taylor. “The investigation’s going pretty well,” said Jarema. Autopsy results are still pending, but Taylor Police believe the baby likely died here and then was brought to Boyne City. They hope to know much more on Monday.

Dead baby found in backpack

September 9, 2010
BY SHERI McWHIRTER, smcwhirter@record-eagle.com

BOYNE CITY — The Rev. Eleanor West is among those searching for answers following the discovery of a dead newborn baby in a backpack in Boyne City.

"It brings up many questions. I'm sure there was a lot of confusion involved for something like this to happen," said West, one of the pastors at Boyne City Community of Christ Church. "Where did we fall down as a society?"

The Boyne City Police Department is investigating after someone brought the backpack to the police station on Tuesday afternoon after finding it in bushes in a yard in Boyne City. An officer noticed a foul odor and opened the backpack to discover a dead newborn wrapped in plastic bags.

"I'm just devastated. My heart goes out to that new soul and the person who felt that was their only option," West said.

Police are withholding the name of the person who brought the backpack to the station, as well as the location where the dead infant was found.

Chief Randall Howard could not be reached for comment on Wednesday after his department released limited information in a written press release.

The infant's body is at Spectrum Hospital in Grand Rapids, where a forensic autopsy will be performed. Results are not yet known, said John Jarema, Charlevoix County prosecutor.

"We're waiting for that to come back and hopefully we'll know whether the baby was born alive or stillborn," Jarema said.

Autopsy results will help determine the nature of the criminal investigation, he said.

"If it was born alive, that could mean up to murder charges," Jarema said. "It's a wait-and-see right now."

Jarema said police are contacting area hospitals to learn if any women who'd recently delivered checked in for treatment. It is unknown where the baby was born, who delivered the child and how it died, Jarema said.

This is at least the fourth dead newborn baby discovered in northern Lower Michigan this year.

A 15-year-old Traverse City girl delivered a full-term baby boy on March 8, but told her father she miscarried and he took her to the hospital. Officials at Munson Medical Center contacted police, who found the dead infant wrapped in wet towels and a plastic bag in a basement closet at the family's home.

The girl, now 16, faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter for failing to seek medical treatment for the child.

In April, a dead infant was found in a trash container in Montmorency County and authorities charged both parents with crimes. The mother, Krystal Taylor, 18, faces involuntary manslaughter and concealing the death of an infant, while the father, Erick Berney, 25, will be sentenced on Sept. 24 for concealing the death of the infant.

In May, an infant's body was found near a fence in the backyard of a home in Grand Traverse County's Garfield Township. Sheriff's deputies obtained DNA from a woman associated with the residence and it matched the dead infant, though they refuse to identify her or say if she's a suspect.

Charlevoix County continues the trend.

"It's a definite spike and that's alarming and sad, no matter what the reasons are," Jarema said.

Such situations can be avoided, especially through Michigan's safe haven law that allows infants up to three days old to be legally surrendered to officials at any hospital, fire station, police station or with any emergency service provider, Jarema said.

"And that's no questions asked," said Dana Stempky, who works for children's protective services in Charlevoix and Emmet counties, a division of Michigan's Department of Human Services.

Private adoption agencies will take newborn infants immediately after birth and there are many people ready to adopt, Stempky said.

"I don't think people think this will happen in northern Michigan, but we are seeing it happen here," said Sarah Lackie, adoption and pregnancy counseling services supervisor with Bethany Christian Services in Traverse City.

That agency is working to educate the public about Michigan's safe delivery of newborns law following the streak of baby abandonment cases this year. It's a good idea, West said.

"I would hope that somehow, some of us can get together in a way that's not judgmental to help in these situations before something like this happens," West said.

http://www.record-eagle.com/local/x885940016/Dead-baby-found-in-backpack

Boyne City woman charged with disinterment and mutilation of a dead body

November 24, 2010

Emma Lynn Clemens, 22, of Boyne City turned herself in to the Taylor Police Department at approximately 1 p.m. today, Wednesday, for her involvement with a case of a dead baby found in a backpack.

According to the Wayne County Prosecutor's office, on July 24 at approximately 7 p.m. Clemens gave birth to a stillborn child at a location in the 7600 block of Merrick Street in City of Taylor. She allegedly wrapped the child up and placed it inside a backpack. The following day she returned to her home in Boyne City and attempted to bury the backpack containing the stillborn child in the bushes near a home in the 400 block of Trent Street.

The backpack was found in the backyard by the property owner who immediately reported it to the police.

"In this case the defendant allegedly discarded a dead body in a backpack. This is simply not legally or morally acceptable. There is a proper way to handle (a body)," said Wayne County prosecuting attorney, Kym Worthy.

Clemens is being charged with disinterment and mutilation of a dead body, which is a 10 year felony. She is currently out on bond and will report for a preliminary examination on Dec. 20.

http://articles.petoskeynews.com/2010-11-24/dead-body_24944872

DETROIT: Clemens sentenced to one year probation

Published: Saturday, March 05, 2011
By Anne Sullivan



DETROIT — Emma Lynn Clemens was sentenced to one year probation Wednesday in Wayne County Circuit Court in connection with charges that she improperly buried her stillborn infant.

Clemens, 22, pleaded guilty Wednesday to disposing of the infant in the backyard of her parents’ Boyne City residence, a 90-day misdemeanor.

She also was sentenced to seek counseling and to pay court costs and fees.

An additional charge of disinterment and mutilation of a body, a 10-year felony, was dropped.

Clemens gave birth to the stillborn infant July 24 while visiting a relative in Taylor, according to police. She put the baby’s body in a garbage bag and put the bag in her backpack and took it to her residence in Boyne City the next day.

On July 23, Clemens had traveled with her mother, father and sister from their home in Boyne City to Taylor, where they stayed with a relative.

On July 24, the family, except for Clemens, went to a Detroit Tigers’ baseball game. Clemens told the family she was ill and stayed at the house alone.

She later told police that she had been having severe pain and symptoms of a miscarriage for three days. By the night of July 23, the pain was intense.

She told police that while she was in the house alone, she delivered the baby. She said the baby did not move or make any noise as she continued to check on it.

Once she determined that the infant was dead, she said, she put the body in a garbage bag and put it in her backpack. She said she didn’t tell anyone what had happened.

She told police she kept the body in the backpack in her basement bedroom at her parent’s house until she could give it a proper burial when nobody else was home.

She attempted to bury it in the backyard under a lilac tree before returning to Northern Michigan University, where she is a student, Aug. 21 or 22, but said she was unable to dig the hole and left it there.

Her parents found the backpack Sept. 7, called police and gave it to them before discovering that their daughter had given birth.

According to testimony in December during a preliminary examination in 23rd District Court in Taylor, Clemens was the only one who knew about the pregnancy. She said she doesn’t know when she became pregnant, but it likely was in the spring and not even her boyfriend knew. She told police that she was busy with school and work and didn’t really think about it.

Her mother told police that she noticed her daughter had gained weight and asked her if she was pregnant three or four times. Clemens said no each time. One of Clemens’ sisters also asked her if she was pregnant, and Clemens said no. Her boyfriend also asked her, and again she denied it.

The day after Clemens gave birth, her family headed to Boyne City and she put the backpack in the family’s sport utility vehicle for the 200-mile ride home.

http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2011/03/05/news/doc4d71532244508868858971.txt