A New Jersey mother who strangled her newborn daughter to death has been sentenced to several years in jail.
Jade O. Fanz, 21, of Franklin Township, New Jersey, has been sentenced to seven years in jail after she pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in connection to the February 2016 death of her “minutes old” newborn daughter, Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Bernie Weisenfeld told PEOPLE. Fanz had originalyl been charged with murder, unlawfully disturbing, moving, or concealing human remains, and abuse or neglect of a child, though the charges were lessened due to “various mitigating elements.”
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The charges stem from the February 2016 strangulation death of Fanz’s newborn daughter, who was identified in court documents as “Baby Girl Fanz,” according to NJ.com. Fanz had been 19-years-old at the time that she had given birth inside of her family’s home.
Bernie Weisenfeld, spokesman for the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office, previously stated that the infant had been “minutes old when she died” after Fanz “applied pressure to the throat” of the newborn.
After strangling her newborn, Fanz then reportedly placed the infant’s body in a bathroom vanity, though she later moved the body to the trash “so that it would be removed with the weekly municipal trash pickup,” according to Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Steve Salvati.
Authorities were made aware of the incident after Fanz sought medical treatment at Kennedy Hospital in Washington Township for complications following the birth. Hospital employees became suspicious and alerted police.
When authorities searched Fanz’s family home on February 27, 2016, they discovered the baby’s body in a trash receptacle. Fanz was arrested on several charges and held on $250,000 bail.
“We can only speculate as to motive, but given the defendant’s age, education, and other familial factors, and from what was disclosed during her interviews, the defendant was probably acting out of fear, scared of the situation she was in and unsure how to properly react/respond,” Salvati previously said of the case.
Fanz is required to serve 85 percent of her term. Her sentence also includes three years’ probation. She is reportedly not considering appealing her sentencing.
