A student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been accused of killing her baby boy last month in a campus residence hall shortly after giving birth.
The Daily Illini reports that Lindsay Johnson, 20, of Monee, Ill., has pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder.
Authorities allege that Johnson suffocated her infant son on March 13 after giving birth to him in the bathroom of her suite in Bousfield Hall. She also has been charged with child endangerment and concealing a homicide.
According to a news release last month from University of Illinois police, officers went to Bousfield Hall on March 13 to check on a student who had been in the bathroom for several hours. The student told police she had the flu and didn't need their help.
Police subsequently were given information that a baby may have been born that afternoon in the bathroom. Officers questioned the student again, and she told them she had given birth earlier in the day.
The infant's body was found in a backpack the student had been carrying.
Police say that Johnson initially asserted that the baby was not breathing when he was born, but later admitted that the infant was crying shortly after the birth.
Johnson also told police at first that she did not know she was pregnant until she went into labor, but evidence investigators gathered showed she had been seeking information for several months about pregnancy, miscarriages and abortions.
