Iowa Woman Pleads Guilty to Murdering Crying Baby to Prevent Police From Discovering Meth Use

An Iowa mother has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering her crying newborn in order to prevent police from discovering her meth use and taking away her other child.

Taylor Blaha, 24, changed her plea to guilty Friday morning and was charged with second-degree murder, according to a report by KCCI. Blaha and her boyfriend Brandon Thoma were both charged with the baby’s death.

Police arrested the Fort Dodge couple in November 2022 in connection with baby Kayleen Lee Blaha’s disappearance and death, according to the Des Moines Register. Kayleen was born on Nov. 16. 

Blaha told Thoma she was pregnant in April 2022, according to court documents. The couple already had a 2-year-old son together and had planned to have a family member adopt Kayleen because they did not want a second child. When police seized the couple’s phones, they discovered searches for how to induce a miscarriage.

According to charging documents, when Blaha went into labor she asked Thoma to give her meth to “ease” the pain. Kayleen was born alive and began to cry, which the couple told investigators made them worried because they thought a neighbor might call the police and discover the meth, which they believed would cost them the custody of their son.

Blaha told authorities that she did not want to lose her son, so she placed her daughter in a bathtub full of water. She said Thoma demonstrated how to drown the baby by pushing her chest underwater.

The couple then reportedly wrapped up the baby’s body in garbage bags and placed her in a backpack. Surveillance footage obtained by Fort Dodge police showed Thoma leaving the apartment with a “large rectangular object” and a backpack, and then returning 20 minutes later with the backpack seemingly empty, according to court documents.

Police searched the area where Thoma allegedly discarded the body as well as near the landfill, but the body has yet to be recovered.

Thoma pleaded guilty in July, changing his first-degree murder charge to charges of endangerment resulting in death and abuse of a corpse. He will be sentenced in September.