Lawyer Says Mother In Squalid Blackstone Home Horror Is Mentally Ill

[mfcorey1]

BLACKSTONE (CBS/AP) — An extensive search was underway Friday at a squalid home where the bodies of three infants were found among vermin and piles of soiled diapers, and investigators had not ruled out the possibility that more bodies may be inside.

A woman who lives in the house on St. Paul Street appeared in court briefly this morning and was ordered held without bail.

Erika Murray, 31, pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Uxbridge District Court on several charges including fetal death concealment out of wedlock, witness intimidation, misleading a police officer, animal cruelty and two counts of permitting substantial injury to a child.

She is not charged in the child deaths at this point in the investigation.

“You want answers in circumstances like these and you’re hoping there’s something rational and mental illness doesn’t always provide those kinds of answers. Living in that house, who could live in that house who is not seriously mentally ill?” her attorney Keith Halpern told reporters.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/09/12/woman-due-in-court-day-after-3-infants-bodies-found-in-blackstone-home/

[get the red out]

1. She very well could be mentally ill

This case will probably be one that I try to follow. I would like to try to glean some insight into how a person gets to this point, whatever that may be.

It is an incredibly sad and distressing story.

[ret5hd]

2. "...fetal death concealment out of wedlock..."

WTH kind of charge is this?

I know I'm not really adressing the horror of the story, but WTH?

[jwirr]

3. I wondered what wedlock had to do with any of the rest of the story.