After leaving her baby to die in a clothes hamper in her parents? home in September, 26-year-old Carmen Rappuhn of Springfield Township was found guilty of second degree murder last week.
Within two days of her trial in an Oakland County Circuit courtroom, a jury convicted Rappuhn, who will be sentenced May 20 before Judge Nanci J. Grant.
Rappuhn was accused of hiding her pregnancy from her parents. In a police report, her stepfather said he and his wife suspected their daughter was pregnant, but when they confronted her, she denied it.
On Sept. 28, Rappuhn secretly gave birth to Daren Rappuhn in her parents Norman Road home in Springfield Township.
There, Oakland County Sheriff’s Department deputies and the Springfield Township Fire Department were dispatched to a medical call for a young woman bleeding.
The woman bleeding was Rappuhn, who was transported to Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc for further treatment.
There it was determined after examination, she had delivered a baby at approximately 34 weeks into the pregnancy.
She denied this, according to police reports, but told medical professionals she had a miscarriage two months prior and was still bleeding from it.
Springfield Township deputies were notified, went to the home and found the baby boy, deceased, wrapped in a nightgown, and inside a clothes hamper in the middle of a messy bedroom. A medical examination determined Daren was born alive.
A minimum sentencing term is seven and a half to 12 years in prison.