Unmarried mother drops newborn from 12th floor

A 19-year-old migrant woman has been charged with killing her infant daughter by dropping her from the 12th floor of a building in Songjiang district, police said Tuesday.

The suspect, surnamed Zhou, has been charged with intentional homicide, according to a post on the Songjiang District Public Security Bureau's microblog. Police took the suspect into custody Monday night.

The infant's body was found on an overhang on the fourth floor of a mixed commercial and residential building on Xinzhong Road, according to a report on the news website eastday.com.

Witnesses said the child was naked and there was still blood on her uncut umbilical cord.

The unmarried Zhou had the baby in secret in a public restroom, according to the police microblog. She and her previous boyfriend had broken up after she accidently got pregnant.

She was too afraid to have an abortion or tell her next boyfriend about the pregnancy, so she decided to abandon the baby after giving birth.

Zhou told investigators that her mind was completely blank when she dropped the baby, police said.

Zhou could be sentenced to between 10 years and life in prison, or the death penalty, said Zhang Peihong, a lawyer from the Huiye Law Firm.

"Her sentence depends on her motive for the murder," he told the Global Times.