An 18-year-old girl will spend 35 to 60 years in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of her newborn baby.
On November 6, 2023, Chloe Coplen-Anderson was arrested after her father called the Gordon Police Department, reporting that his 16-year-old daughter had given birth to a stillborn baby that he didn’t believe could be saved. Her mother, however, was sobbing, and said her daughter had killed the baby.
Coplen-Anderson had allegedly been hiding the pregnancy from her parents, and gave birth in her bedroom, without either of them knowing. She then went into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and slit the baby boy’s throat.
How her parents found out what happened is unclear, but her mother was allegedly hysterical, telling officers “she hurt him” and that you can “see the marks.”
When Coplen-Anderson actually gave birth is unclear, but her parents found the baby’s body when the teenager left the house to go to the store. She had tried to hide the baby’s body by stuffing it into a plastic bag, then inserting that into an empty dog food bag. She then attempted to cover it all up with clothing.
It appears that she had given birth earlier that day, however, as her parents said they saw her take a knife from the kitchen. When she came home, her mother confronted her, and the teen admitted to intentionally killing her baby.
According to People, the affidavit states that “police were later called back to the residence after Coplen-Anderson’s father found the knife hidden in his daughter’s closet and covered in blood.”
Sickeningly, the baby boy’s throat had been cut through to the windpipe, and he sustained additional stab wounds to his chest.
According to Coplen-Anderson’s attorney, Todd Lancaster, the teen had been abused as a child, which he claimed left her with PTSD and major depressive disorder. She became pregnant when she was 15, and the father of her baby was 19 — which is a crime in the state of Nebraska.
Coplen-Anderson ultimately agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder. She will not be eligible to leave prison until she is at least 51 years old, having received credit for 500 days she already spent in prison.
Nebraska, like every other state in the country, has a Safe Haven law in place to prevent this kind of tragedy. Under the state law, any newborn can be anonymously surrendered up to 90 days after birth, with acceptable locations including a hospital, a fire station, or a police station.
