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By Joshua Rhett Miller
Senior Reporter
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Authorities in Kentucky arrested a couple more than a year after they reported a miscarriage at their home, where responding officers discovered an unresponsive infant over an embankment.
Deann Bennett, 27, and Charles Bennett, 32, were taken into custody Monday following a yearlong investigation into the death of an infant in Booneville in November 2024. A grand jury in Owsley County issued indictments in the case in late January, Kentucky State Police said Tuesday.
State police did not reveal the age of the remains or the cause of death. Newsweek reached out to the State Medical Examiner's Office via email for comment.
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Deann Bennett has been charged with reckless homicide, tampering with physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and concealing the birth of an infant. Charles Bennett was arrested on charges of reckless homicide and concealing the birth of an infant, Kentucky State Police said.
Authorities launched an investigation after officers responded to a 911 call on November 29, 2024, regarding a woman who had been transported to a hospital upon reporting a possible miscarriage.
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Once at the hospital, the couple told authorities the infant remained at their home on Lewis Lane in Booneville, the Kentucky State Police said.
State troopers and detectives said they then found an unresponsive infant over an embankment outside the couple's home. Owsley County Coroner Rob Morgan later pronounced the infant dead at the scene. The body was subsequently transported to a medical examiner's office for an autopsy, according to Kentucky State Police.
Newsweek reached out to the State Medical Examiner's Office via email for comment.
Both Deann and Charles Bennett remain in custody on Thursday at Three Forks Regional Jail in Beattyville, online records show. They're scheduled to be arraigned on March 2, and it's unclear if they've hired an attorney who could speak on their behalf.
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The charges filed against the Kentucky couple come just weeks after a Wolfe County woman was arrested for taking abortion medication to terminate a pregnancy, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
Melissa Spencer, 35, of Campton, was initially indicted on charges including fetal homicide, but prosecutors dropped that charge after discovering it cannot be applied to people seeking abortion care, the outlet reported. Spender had been reported to the police after seeking care from a nearby clinic.
Kentucky bans nearly all abortions, but the state's fetal homicide law prohibits usage in cases where a woman seeks an abortion. Spencer still faces counts of concealing the birth of an infant, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence.
Reckless homicide, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, has no such restriction in Kentucky regarding who can be charged, unlike fetal homicide, the Herald-Leader reported.
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