INDIANAPOLIS -- The mother of a child brought to an Indianapolis funeral home days after its death says she hid her pregnancy, and the stillborn baby, out of fear of her strict, religious family.
The body of Mialiah Dorsey was brought to Little & Sons Funeral Home last month. The body was frozen and wrapped in a white trash bag and a blanket and placed in a cooler.
A subsequent autopsy determined Mialiah was born at 36-37 weeks old weighing a little less than 6 pounds. Medical examiners were not able to determine whether the child was stillborn or not due to significant decomposition that had already taken place.
The child's mother, 23-year-old Fayzah Al-Khatib, told police she began having stomach pain in the early morning hours of January 30. She went to the bathroom of her home, where she eventually gave birth to a baby girl.
Al-Khatib said the baby was not crying or breathing when it was born. She said she didn't know what to do. Eventually, she realized the baby was deceased.
Al-Khatib told police she placed the baby's body in a shoebox and kept it for the next day and a half. She said she was scared, and didn't alert police or her family for "religious reasons."
"[The family] are really strict in that kind of situation," her sister, Reema Al-Khatib, told police in an interview after the child's body was brought to the funeral home.
Al-Khatib's sisters told police they didn't know she was pregnant, and that she had denied it in the past. Her mother, Yafa Elmatari, also said she didn't know her daughter was pregnant.
Elmatari went into her daughter's room while Al-Khatib was gone. That's when, she said, she discovered the child's body. She told police she took the body and placed it in the freezer in the garage.
After the child's body was brought to the funeral home, investigators obtained a search warrant for Al-Khatib's cellphone. On the device were texts to the child's father, including one from January 24 reading, "I'm going to ER. Having really bad contractions."
Police also found Internet searches for "bbay not crying after birth" and "what does an autopsy reveal."
In an interview with police, the child's father said he knew Al-Khatib was pregnant, but did not know the baby had been born.
According to a probable cause affidavit released this week, Al-Khatib told police she had taken Vicodin and Suboxone, but denied that she was abusing them.
Earlier this month, Marion County prosecutors filed charges of obstruction of justice, a level 6 felony, and failure to report a dead body, a class "A" misdemeanor, against Al-Khatib.
Al-Khatib's attorney, Brady Lory, released a brief statement to RTV6 saying his client had been through "a very tragic situation" and that they hope to resolve the case in a way that benefits everyone.
Al-Khatib was released from jail earlier this month on a $500 cash bond. Her next court appearance is scheduled for May 1.
