It's not a ridiculous question. I don't know the answers. I've found a few things when it comes to disposal (lots of trash dumping for sure but also freezers and other methods) and also some data that informs my opinion she will not be sentenced to much:
Becky Sue Marrow concealed her pregnancy for 9 months then
dismembered and burned her newborn son. According to her
lawyers, she was in a ‘‘dissociated’’ mental state at the time
of the crime. However, as Marrow had tried to hide a preg-
nancy in the past, had attempted to divert witnesses from the
fire pit where she burned the infant’s corpse, and did not suffer
from any symptoms of amnesia, it is likely that the psychiatrist
was correct when he told the court, ‘‘She had clear insight. She
knew exactly what she was doing’’ (The Canadian Press, 2008).
However, she was only found guilty of ‘‘offering an indignity
to a dead human body and disposing of the dead body of a child
with the intent to conceal its birth’’ and
sentenced to 2 months
house arrest.
Resnick (1970) and several other studies have confirmed
that
the majority of neonaticidal women are not mentally ill
at the time of the murder and maternal suicide after neonaticide
is rare. Hatters-Friedman, Heneghan, and Rosenthal (2007), in
their review of 81 women who either denied or concealed their
pregnancies, found that
none had psychotic denial and a psy-
chiatry consult was only requested on four of the women. In
2001, Meyer and Oberman reviewed 37 cases of neonaticide
and found that most of the perpetrators did not have a major
mental illness. In D’Orban’s British study, she found that the
majority of the neonaticidal women were not suffering from
psychosis or depression. Haapasalo and Peta¨ja¨ (1999), in their
Finnish study of 15 neonaticides, proposed that mental illness
was not a relevant variable, with less than 30%of the women
claiming any psychological issues. Similarly, the Finnish sam-
ple of Putkonen, Collander, Weizmann-Henelius, and Eronen
(2007) of 14 psychiatrically evaluated cases found only four
cases with psychotic symptoms.
The majority of infants killed in the 1st day are born out of a
hospital, usually at the woman’s home (Paulozzi & Sells, 2002),
although there are recorded cases of neonaticides in birthing
units (Mendlowicz, da Silva, Gekker, de Moreas, Rapaport, &
Jean-Louis, 2000, cited in Hatters-Friedman & Resnick,
2009). Newborns who are the second child of a woman under
age 19 are at an increased risk of homicide (Overpeck cited in
Spinelli, 2003).
The hallmark example of neonaticide is that the
newborn is unwanted and so the woman, after concealing
the pregnancy for 9 months, gives birth alone, and then kills
the newborn via non-weapon methods such as suffocation,
strangulation, or drowning (Meyer & Oberman, 2001).
Women who murder infants who are older than 1 day are
significantly different to women who murder newborns. They
tend to be older than 25, use weapon as well as non-weapon
methods of murder, are often married, and well educated
(Resnick, 1970; see Table 3).
These women tend to premeditate their murders (Logan,
1995, in Dalley, 1997) and may murder the infant as retaliation
against another person, during an episode of abuse, or to
remove an unwanted child (D’Orban, 1979).
Due to their small size and inability to defend themselves, the
murder of an infant does not require either strength or skill.
Therefore, smothering, strangling, suffocating, and drowning
are all common methods of infanticide, although many other
means are used including starving burning, stabbing or cutting
shooting, exposure, gross assault, gassing, scalding, poisoning,
and defenestration (see Table 4). Finkelhor and Ormrod (2001)
suggest that women are more likely to use their hands as a
weapon and less likely to use firearms, compared to men, but...
up to 25%of women who murdered their
children use weapons.
Denial/Concealment
‘‘Infant’s body discovered in trash’’ (LA times, February 9,
1996).
‘‘Infant’s body discovered near the 2-9 Dumpsters’’ (Daily
Trojan, 10/11/05).
‘‘The case of the frozen babies’’ (Schpoliansky & Childs,
2009).
‘‘Three babies found in deep freeze in Germany’s infanti-
cide epidemic’’ (Boyes, 2008). ‘‘Infant’s body discovered at
plant’’ (NY Times, May 4, 2006).
‘‘Infant’s body found inside plastic bag’’ (CBC News, April
2, 2009).
‘‘Infant’s body found in Onslow County garbage truck’’
(Capitol Broadcasting Company, October 27, 2008).
‘‘Infant’s body found in Erfurt freezer’’ (The Local, May 27,
2009).
‘‘Dead newborn found at abandoned apartment in northern
Japan’’ (Bay Ledger News, May 31, 2007).
As these news headlines show, the discovery of a newborn’s
corpse is an unfortunately frequent occurrence. In a study of
neonaticides published in 1990, 64%of the newborn’s corpses
were discovered by accident in garbage cans or other refuse
sites. None of the newborns could be matched to a missing per-
son report, which indicated that the woman had intentionally
concealed her pregnancy and abandoned the infant upon birth
(Crittenden & Craig, 1990)
One of the hallmark factors in neonaticide compared to
infanticide is the secrecy of the pregnancy and subsequent
birth. As noted above, women who commit neonaticide are
markedly different from women who commit infanticide. Neo-
naticidal women tend to be younger, emotionally immature,
and do not desire to become a parent at the time of the homi-
cide. Many of these women manage to conceal their pregnancies from their parents and others for the entire 9
months, although, according to Beyer et al. (2008), at least one
other person was aware of the pregnancy in 83%of the cases.
Beyer et al. (2008) further notes that
in the majority of cases
the women went through labor and then murdered the infant
within close proximity to others, without disturbing anyone, let
alone calling for help. This behavior suggests intentional con-
cealment. If a woman found herself experiencing labor and giv-
ing birth, somehow without ever having known she was
pregnant, an expected reaction would be to call for help.
Even
if she mistakenly believed the baby was stillborn, calling for
help would still be the expected behavior, not placing the infant
in the trash as is done in these cases.
...Even when women were incarcerated, their sentence
lengths averaged less than half the sentence lengths of men
convicted of similar offenses. She cites similar results in Aus-
tralia, Canada, American, Denmark, and Sweden.
This aversion to holding women accountable for their
actions, often termed chivalric justice, has significant negative
implications for society. It suggests that our society values the
lives of children far less than we value the lives of adults. In
addition, it reinforces the stereotype that women are irrational
beings under the control of their biology, unlike men.
https://www.researchgate.net/public...f_Research_Literature_on_Incidence_and_Causes
Attached is a screen shot of a page from another study which shows that a prominent motive in several neonaticides studied was the inability of the pregnant teen to reveal the pregnancy to her mother for fear of shame or punishment and rejection. So they actively killed the baby instead and concealed the body in cupboards, dustbins or rubbish dumps, etc. .
Neonaticides following "secret" pregnancies: seven case reports.
Mothers who kill their infant on the day of its birth (neonaticide) do not generally show signs of psychopathology. Mothers who commit neonaticide tend to be young, single, and immature, and kill to eliminate an unwanted child. Mothers who kill their older children (filicide) are frequently older, married,
psychotic, depressed, or suicidal. Filicides tend to kill as a result of their psychosis, for
altruistic reasons (to relieve child of suffering), accidentally (as in
battered child syndrome), or to seek revenge on a spouse. Resnick notes that mothers who commit neonaticide are more likely to be incarcerated, whereas mothers who commit filicide are more likely to be hospitalized.
Infanticide - burial, body, funeral, life, history, beliefs, cause, rate, time
In contrast to filicide, neonaticide is committed almost exclusively by women. Neonaticidal mothers are younger, more often unmarried, and less likely to have psychiatric illnesses compared with women who kill their older children. While older children are often killed for altruistic motives (to relieve real or imagined suffering) or as a result of the perpetrators’ loss of temper,9 the newborns are killed simply because they are unwanted. The most common reason for neonaticide is extramarital paternity or impregnation that is considered unacceptable ethically or culturally, such as those exemplified in this series of reports. Women who commit neonaticide often conceal or deny the pregnancy prior to the birth of the child, with or without intermittent acknowledgement.2,4,10 The denial of pregnancy is most commonly observed in young, unmarried, and primiparous women, and may be affective or pervasive in nature.
Methods of neonaticide include suffocation, strangulation, head trauma, drowning, exposure, stabbing, burning, throwing to pigs, and burying alive.4 Unusual means such as inserting needles inside the cranium have also been reported.14 The delivery occurs almost exclusively outside a hospital setting, and most infants die from suffocation or drowning.2,4 Disposal of the infant, whether dead or alive, seems to be the most ‘fashionable’ means of getting rid of the babies. Newborns may be discarded into trash bins or dumpsters. Disposal into the sea also accounts for a substantial number of cases in Hong Kong (personal communication). Even if the baby is alive when being disposed of, they may die quickly either as a result of suffocation by being wrapped in a plastic bag or drowning, or because of severe hypothermia.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9e89/715bd45bb0b65cf2f528f6ab0c35ca4d963b.pdf
