A mother and her daughter, who is only a teenager, have been arrested in Nebraska on suspicion of criminal activity related to the daughter’s suspected participation in an illegal abortion and the alleged burial of the foetus.
Despite the fact that the abortion may have taken place before the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a constitutional right to abortion, a state law that has been in effect in Nebraska since 2010 makes it illegal to perform abortions after the 20th week of a pregnancy.
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Celeste Burgess is accused of receiving assistance from her mother Jessica Burgess, 41, in taking abortion pills to end the pregnancy.
The pair is also accused of burying and reburying the foetus together three times in different locations.
According to the court records, Celeste Burgess, who is now 18 years old and is being tried as an adult, is being accused of three crimes: the felony of unlawfully burying and reburying the foetus, as well as the misdemeanours of concealing the death of another person and lying to police.
Burgess is being tried as an adult. According to the documents filed in the case, she entered a not guilty plea to the allegations.
According to the court records, Jessica Burgess, age 41, is being charged with five counts: felony unlawfully burying and reburying the foetus, felony inducing an abortion, and felony performing an abortion without being a licenced physician.
Burgess is also being charged with misdemeanour concealing the death of another person and lying to police.
According to the documents filed in the case, she entered a not guilty plea to the allegations.
ABC News’ efforts for comment were not immediately met with a response from the attorneys named for either of the accused.
According to the papers from the court, two of the felony charges that were brought against the mother were brought after detectives were able to get records of messages that were exchanged between the mother and daughter on Facebook.
Celeste Burgess’s estimated gestational age at the time of the alleged abortion was 23 weeks and 2 days, according to the medical data that the police were able to collect.
According to the affidavit, her expected delivery date was on July 3rd.
In an interview with police, the mother and daughter allegedly indicated that Celeste Burgess unexpectedly gave delivery at home in a bathtub/shower, and said the foetus was stillborn, according to the affidavit.
After that, Celeste Burgess put the dead body of the foetus in a bag, followed by placing the bag inside of a box, and finally placing the box inside of a cargo van on their property.
According to the affidavit, the two individuals then took the dead body of the foetus that they had found and buried it on a piece of property that was located to the north of Norfolk.
On April 29, the two individuals voluntarily led law enforcement to the area and showed McBride the location where the body had been buried.
Tanner Barnhill, who assisted the mother and daughter in burying the body, testified that the mother and daughter attempted to burn the body of the foetus before it was buried.
This information was included in the affidavit.
According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Barnhill, who is 22 years old, has entered a plea of no contest to a misdemeanour in connection with the case, and he will be sentenced later this month.
Celeste Burgess showed police a Facebook message that indicated the birth took place on April 22 during her interview with police.
This was one of the pieces of evidence that investigators used to get a search warrant ordering Facebook’s parent company Meta to turn over messages that were exchanged between the mother and daughter.
Messages between the two that were allegedly exchanged on April 20 and included in court records suggest that they discuss “doing it now.
One of the messages that Jessica Burgess sends to her sister Celeste Burgess explains that after taking one medication to counteract the hormones, the recipient must wait twenty-four hours before taking the second pill.
In a subsequent message, Celeste Burgess stated, “Remember we burn the proof.” [Celeste Burgess]
On June 14, Celeste Burgess’s friend informed authorities that she was present when Celeste took the first of the two abortion pills that were intended to cause a miscarriage.
This information was provided to police by the friend.
According to court records, an autopsy was conducted of the foetus and an exact cause of death was not determined, but the lungs did not indicate they had ever contained air.
According to the court documents, the foetus also exhibited “thermal wounds.”
In a statement released on Tuesday, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, stated that the business was not aware that the search request was for a case concerning abortion.
According to the statements made by the corporation, “court documents suggest that authorities were at the time investigating the alleged illegal burning and burial of a stillborn infant.
Because the warrants came with non-disclosure orders, we were prohibited from discussing any details regarding them.
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Thirty senators from the state of Nebraska have written a letter to the governor requesting a special session to pass a ban on abortions after 12 weeks of gestation.
However, according to the governor, they do not have the support of the 33 legislators from the state legislature that is required to do so.
