N.D. Mom Admits Killing, Discarding Baby*

Tuesday December 11, 2007 4:31 AM

By JAMES MacPHERSON

Associated Press Writer

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Dana Deegan hid her pregnancy from her family,
including the father of her three children, for nine months. Then she
gave birth to a healthy boy, fed him, dressed him, wrapped him in a
blanket and left him to die.

Deegan, 34, of White Shield, admitted Monday that she left the child
alone for two weeks immediately after he was born, then put his body in
a suitcase and left it in a ditch on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

Deegan tearfully pleaded guilty in federal court to a reduced charge of
second-degree murder, acknowledging that she was under stress around the
time of the birth. She had originally been charged with first-degree
murder and false statements.

She is to be sentenced in February and could face as many as 18 years in
prison.

The suitcase containing the body was found in November 1999 by a rancher
repairing fences. Prosecutors said the baby was found in a one-piece
sleeper and socks, wrapped in a blanket and towel, and in a plastic bag.

The child became known as ``Baby Moses,'' and community members paid
burial expenses. Authorities eventually identified his mother through
DNA testing. Deegan volunteered a DNA sample to the FBI in 2004.

U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said Monday that Deegan's plea helped bring
justice for a baby whose life ended in starvation and dehydration.

The case is ``absolutely gut-wrenching,'' said U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley.

Deegan told Judge Daniel Hovland, mostly through a series of
yes-or-no-questions, that she had never seen a doctor during the
pregnancy and that she gave birth to the boy Oct. 20, 1998.

She told Hovland that she gathered her older children - ages 1, 2 and 5
- and took them to her mother's home. She returned to her own home about
two weeks later ``by myself,'' she said.

Deegan said that neither she nor her children's father were employed at
the time, and that they had no vehicle. The children's father used
alcohol and was rarely around, she said. Her own father had cancer, she
said.

Hovland asked Deegan whether her life had been ``overwhelmed with
stress,'' and she answered yes.

Deegan has been in her mother's custody. Defense attorney Bill Schmidt
has declined to comment.