WORCESTER, Mass. – A Massachusetts woman has been convicted of killing her pregnant friend, then cutting the baby from her womb and passing the girl off as her own child.
A Worcester Superior Court jury found Julie Corey guilty Wednesday in the 2009 murder of 23-year-old Darlene Haynes.
Prosecutors said Haynes was eight months pregnant when Corey beat and strangled her. They told the jury that Corey had been pregnant, too, but had a miscarriage three months earlier and told her boyfriend and family that Haynes' baby was hers.
Corey's lawyers contended that police failed to follow up on leads that could have implicated other potential suspects in the killing, including Haynes' ex-boyfriend. They also suggested that Haynes' ex-boyfriend had given Corey and her boyfriend, Alex Dion, the baby. Dion denied that.
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