She was accused of murder after losing her pregnancy. SC woman now tells her story | CNN
www.cnn.com
Amari Marsh had just finished her junior year at South Carolina State University in May 2023 when she received a text message from a law enforcement officer.

Amari Marsh had just finished her junior year at South Carolina State University in May 2023 when she received a text message from a law enforcement officer.

“Sorry it has taken this long for paperwork to come back,” the officer wrote. “But I finally have the final report, and wanted to see if you and your boyfriend could meet me Wednesday afternoon for a follow up?”

Marsh understood that the report was related to a pregnancy loss she’d experienced that March, she said. During her second trimester, Marsh said, she unexpectedly gave birth in the middle of the night while on a toilet in her off-campus apartment. She remembered screaming and panicking and said the bathroom was covered in blood.

“I couldn’t breathe,” said Marsh, now 23.

The next day, when Marsh woke up in the hospital, she said, a law enforcement officer asked her questions. Then, a few weeks later, she said, she received a call saying she could collect her daughter’s ashes.

At that point, she said, she didn’t know she was being criminally investigated. Yet three months after her loss, Marsh was charged with murder/homicide by child abuse, law enforcement records show. She spent 22 days at the Orangeburg-Calhoun Regional Detention Center, where she was initially held without bond, facing 20 years to life in prison.

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
    16·
    2 months ago

    The arrest warrant alleges that not moving the infant from the toilet at the urging of the dispatcher was ultimately “a proximate cause of her daughter’s death.” The warrant also cites as the cause of death “respiratory complications” due to a premature delivery stemming from a maternal chlamydia infection. Marsh said she was unaware of the infection until after the pregnancy loss.

    This is another thing. Chlamydia is often asymptomatic, and she surely didn’t contact that all by herself. But around where I live, simply don’t get tested, especially men, and while knowing they have symptoms. But this is the South and that makes you a “removed” if you’re a woman. Idk why men don’t get tested, since multiple partners makes a man “the man.”

    I’ve not had a partner in two years. I get tested every year, regardless.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
        91·
        2 months ago

        Because retroviruses. Eta: and now that I think about it, why not help destigmatize it?

          • deltapi@lemmy.world
            1·
            2 months ago

            I don’t either. Retroviruses are viruses that inject their RNA into a cell where the genome is converted to DNA.

            No clue what that has to do with getting tested annually regardless of exposure.

            • Cort@lemmy.world
              2·
              2 months ago

              iirc retroviruses can take longer to be detectable. 2 years is probably fine but after a 3rd year would be a little much.