Dead pregnant woman had baby cut from womb

A PREGNANT woman stabbed to death in Washington state at the weekend had her near full-term baby cut from her womb, police said.

Kennewick police chief Ken Hohenberg said the baby was on life support at Deaconess Medical Centre in Spokane. A woman has been arrested.

Court documents say 27-year-old Araceli Camacho Gomez had her hands and feet bound with yarn and suffered massive trauma to her stomach area.

An autopsy showed she died of the chest wounds, but had other wounds consistent with the cutting of the body to remove an unborn child.

Her body was found early Saturday in Kennewick’s Columbia Park.

A 23-year-old Kennewick woman, Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong, has been arrested for investigation of first-degree murder and is accused of trying to pass the infant boy off as her own.

She is being held without bail with an court appearance scheduled for today.

Court documents say blue mechanic’s gloves soaked in blood, a boxcutter, bloody paper towels, yarn, a mucus bulb, baby bottle and baby socks were among some of the items found in Sisouvanh Synhavong’s purse.

They didn’t say whether the boxcutter was used to cut or stab Gomez and police refused to discuss details further.

Court documents allege that Sisouvanh Synhavong called 911 at 11:04pm on Friday saying she had just given birth and that she thought the baby had died.

The call was traced to a parking lot.

The site was a mile or two from where Ms Gomez’s body was found.