A ten-day-old baby girl died after being placed in a washing machine as it went through an entire spin cycle. The newborn's mother Lyndsey Fiddler put her daughter into the washing machine along with a pile of laundry, reports Daily Mail, London.
The tiny baby was inside the top loading washing machine for up to 40 minutes before being discovered.
A relative who called in to see Fiddler found her passed out and the baby, called Maggie May, missing. She also heard a strange sound from the washing machine and when she opened the door found the crumpled body of Maggie mixed in with the clothes.
In a frantic call to emergency dispatchers 26-year-old Fiddler is heard saying :'My baby is dead.' She can then be heard arguing with her aunt Rhonda Coshatt who is heard on the call saying: 'No I did not kill your baby, you did.'
The gruesome death in Bartlesville, Oklahoma left many of the emergency crews and police who responded to the incident in tears. A veteran police chief, who has witnessed multiple murders and gangland shootings, said it was the most tragic crime scene he has ever investigated.
Police have charged Fiddler with second degree manslaughter after initially arresting her on drug charges. They had been called to her flat on Thursday where they found the dead baby still inside the washing machine. An investigation revealed it had gone through a full-spin cycle before she was discovered.
Bartlesville Police Chief Tom Holland said Coshatt had called in to see Fiddler, who has two other boys , to see how she was coping with her newborn daughter. Family members had been concerned about Fiddler because of her past drug use.
Earlier this year they had tried to get her parental rights revoked before the birth of her third child. The young mother had been arrested in April for taking drugs when she was four months pregnant.
She is suspected of being hooked on crystal meth and taking the drug the night her daughter died.
Holland said Coshatt walked into a grim scene. 'The mother was asleep and she had trouble waking her and heard the washer out of balance, clanging, so went to lift the lid so it would stop and in the washing machine, saw the baby,' Holland said.
Fiddler's two other boys, aged four and three, were taken into care by social workers. The infant's father, Benjamin Trammel, said he can't believe his girlfriend deliberately killed their daughter.
'Inside my heart, I can't believe Lyndsey would have hurt our little girl. I don't believe it in my heart to be honest with you,' Trammel said.
Paramedics had desperately tried to revive the newborn baby after she was pulled out of the washing machine, but she was already dead on arrival at hospital.
Paramedic John Houser,who worked on the baby, said: 'Terrible. I don't even know how to describe it.'
Fiddler has a long criminal history with arrests for assault, driving without a licence and not having her two older children in car seats.
Police chief Holland said the investigation in continuing with many of his men deeply affected by what they saw. He said a veteran detective taking crime scene photos of the dead baby at the hospital had to step outside because he was overcome with emotion.
'I can assure you we're not going to leave any stone unturned,' Holland said.
