An Iowa woman and her father, Megan and Rodney Staude, will spend decades behind bars for the 2023 murder of Megan’s newborn boy. With the help of her father, Megan kept the baby in a box for days, and later left him abandoned in a snowy ditch.
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As reported by Law & Crime, Megan and Rodney Staude were both sentenced to 50 years in prison on Monday, September 22. Megan, 28, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in July, while Rodney, 67, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Monday.
During their sentencing hearing, Prosecutor Douglas Eichholz read aloud a statement shared by the boy’s father.
“I hope you get what you deserve,” the father said. “I’m totally and emotionally broken for what you did to our son who was a baby. Who does that to an innocent child? Who does that to a baby?”
Newborn Baby, Murdered
According to a Norwalk Police Department release, the newborn baby’s body was found along Delaware Street in Warren County on March 9, 2023.
A day prior, the NPD received concerns for the safety of a child. These reports, according to KCCI, came from Megan Staude’s co-workers. They had grown suspicious after they observed that Megan was no longer pregnant. When questioned by it, she reportedly provided a conflicting story on what had happened.
The Mirror reported that Megan and Rodney Staude had originally claimed that, after being born, the baby had died while being transported to a local hospital. Then, Megan claimed she had buried the newborn boy in a cemetery.
However, this was far from the truth. As previously stated, the boy was found along a snowy road, stuffed inside a trash bag in a ditch. Prosecutor Eichholz would later state that the baby had been discarded “like trash.”
Investigators would later determine that Megan and Rodney had placed the newborn boy in a box. They deliberately ignored his cries for two days. While he was still alive, the Staudes placed the boy in a trash bag. Finally, the bag was left in the ditch.
Megan and Rodney Staude were subsequently arrested and were initially charged with first-degree murder.
Rodney will most likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. Megan, meanwhile, will be 78 when she is released.