A woman has been arrested in Florida in connection with the discovery of remains of two infants found wrapped in trash bags under a North Carolina house more than a year ago, PEOPLE confirms.
Bridgette Morgan Smith, 41, was taken into custody last Wednesday on a fugitive warrant, according to a Smithfield Police Department news release. She is charged with two accounts of concealing/failing to report the death of an infant, but additional charges are possible.
Smith waived extradition on Friday, according to police. However, she was booked by the Johnston County Jail in North Carolina on Monday after receiving a bond of $30,000.
Smith is expected to have her first appearance in District Court on Tuesday. It is unclear if she has retained an attorney who could comment on her behalf.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
According an arrest affidavit obtained by The Florida Times-Union, the remains were found in April 2016 at a home rented by Smith’s mother, Pamela McBride. McBride’s son, James Morgan, discovered two trash bags he described as “squishy” while running cable through a crawl space under the house.
After opening one of the bags, the affidavit said, he “recognized that it contained remains of something once living.”
McBride told police that her daughter, who allegedly battled drug addition, had been pregnant about 10 times but only three of the children were accounted for, according to The Florida Times-Union. McBride alleged Smith would try to conceal the pregnancies with sweatshirts then disappear for weeks at a time when her bump would become obvious. Smith would return after giving birth without mentioning the children, McBride alleged.
The suspect allegedly fled the town after she was named a person of interest in the April 2016 case.
“It seems like we’ve been chasing a ghost for six months,” Capt. Ryan Sheppard, spokesman for the Smithfield Police Department, told the outlet at the time.
- Comment
