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Authorities in Worcester seek killer in case of fetus cut from womb

E-mail|Link July 29, 2009 05:46 PM

Chris Christo/Telegram & Gazette

Dolls and Flowers adorned the fence in front the apartment building where Haynes lived.

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Law enforcement authorities in Worcester are looking today for the person who killed a 23-year-old pregnant woman in the city and for the woman's fetus, which may still be alive after being cut by the killer out of the victim's body.

Darlene Haynes, a mother of three, was found dead in a closet in the bedroom of her apartment Monday. Her body was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Boston, and an autopsy conducted Tuesday confirmed that she had been killed and that the fetus had been cut from her womb.

In a statement released by Worcester police Tuesday, the medical examiner’s office said that Haynes’s baby could have survived but that it would require immediate medical attention.

Haynes's uncle, Karl Whitney of Palmer, acting as a spokesman for the grieving family, said today that Haynes had already picked out a name, Sheila Marie, for her baby.

The family is hopeful that the child is still alive and that, if someone has her, they'll bring her back. If the worst has happened and the child is dead, they would like the body back so mother and daughter can be buried together, Whitney said.

Whitney said he was devastated when he learned of Haynes's death. "I just can't describe it. I was speechless. I started crying," he said.

A neighbor who lives in Haynes's building said she heard a "crazy banging" coming from Haynes's apartment at about 2 a.m. Saturday, but was simply annoyed and thought nothing of it.

Haynes was last seen Thursday, police said. On Monday, residents in her building on Southgate Street called the landlord to report a strong odor coming from her second-floor apartment. The victim’s body, wrapped in bedding, was found by the landlord, police said.

Haynes’s body was so mangled and decomposed that police said they could not immediately identify her gender.

Whitney said his niece had three children, 5 years old and younger, two of whom were being raised by their maternal grandmother. The third is now with Haynes's boyfriend or his family.

Haynes, who attended special education programs in the Worcester schools, was "neurologically impaired," Whitney said.

"Sometimes, unfortunately, Darlene would not make decisions correctly," he said.

Haynes's neighbor said Haynes lived with an 18-month-old daughter and had told her recently that she had broken up with her boyfriend and was facing eviction because she was unable to pay her bills. "She had nowhere to go," the neighbor said, describing Haynes as immature, depressed, and very lonely.

The neighbor said she became concerned when Haynes's cat came to her apartment on Sunday, looking for food, and summoned Worcester police. An officer knocked on the door and looked in the window of Haynes's apartment at about 2 p.m. Sunday, but took no action, she said.

The cause of Haynes's death is not yet known, but Worcester Detective Captain Edward J. McGinn Jr. told the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester Tuesday that Haynes had also sustained head trauma.

“Detectives are searching for this fetus,’’ police said in a statement last night.

The newspaper reported that Haynes dropped her one-year-old daughter off at her boyfriend’s house on Thursday.

Worcester police spokesman Sergeant Kerry Hazelhurst had a three-word description of the state of the investigation this morning. "No new developments," he said.

The Telegram & Gazette identified Haynes's boyfriend as Roberto C. Rodriguez, 24. Haynes had an active restraining order against her longtime boyfriend, whom she accused of pushing her into a glass table on June 24 and ripping the phone off the wall so she could not call police, the newspaper said.

Rodriguez is not named as a suspect in Haynes’s slaying.

He is due in court today to answer to charges of aggravated assault and battery and intimidation of a witness in the June 24 case. In a statement released by Worcester police, the medical examiner’s office said that Haynes’s baby could have survived but that it would require immediate medical attention.

Anyone with information on the case or the whereabouts of the baby is urged to call Worcester detectives at 508-799-8651.

Martin Finucane of the Globe staff and Globe correspondents John M. Guilfoil and Maria Chutchian contributed to this report.