SHAWANO, WI (WTAQ) – Shawano Police have arrested a woman in connection to an infant that was found deceased at a residence this week.
22-year-old Catherine R. Barker was taken into custody.
Police say they were called out this week for a welfare check of a child but found a 2-month-old infant deceased.
According to the police report, Barker woke to find her child not breathing and performed CPR in attempts to revive him but never contacted 911.
During the investigation, a text discussion was discovered that showed Baker communicating with friends, saying the child died by accidentally covering himself with a blanket, and suffocated.
According to the police report, the text conversation included Barker telling her friends that she did not want to call the police because she would go to jail because she had unpaid fines and warrants out for her. She also stated that funerals cost too much, so she was going to bury the body in the country.
Police say the friends came forward and showed them the text exchanges.
Barker was charged on Thursday with neglecting a child-consequence death, failure to report the death of a child and attempt to move/hide/bury the corpse of a child.
