The forensic pathologist testified that "all the evidence points to a homicide."
Brooke Skylar Richardson shivered and scrunched her brow as she listened to harrowing testimony from the coroner who examined the newborn baby prosecutors say she killed and buried in her backyard as a teen. Richardson maintains the baby was stillborn.
Dr. Susan Brown, a forensic pathologist with the Montgomery County Coroner's Office, said Friday in an Ohio courtroom that “all the evidence points to a homicide, but the exact cause of the homicide, the exact cause of death can't be determined.”
After months of keeping her pregnancy a secret, then-18-year-old Richardson allegedly delivered the baby and buried it in her family's backyard just a few days after prom in 2017. The remains stayed there for about two months before they were discovered by police.
Cops initially claimed she had burned the baby with a cigarette lighter in an effort to cover up her crime. Authorities interrogated her as she told them, “I promise anything I didn't burn her.”
The defense shot down the cremation theory. “We're talking about putting a lighter to a baby's foot or leg and it bursts into flames, that doesn’t make sense, does it? Yes or no?” her lawyers asked the medical examiner.
The forensic pathologist said it did not make sense.
Ashes found in the grave could have been flowers. Richardson's mother had said she had put flowers on the baby when it was buried.
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