New details after fetus found on plane

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There are new details in the investigation of a fetus found on an airplane at Bush Airport. A young girl now says it was her tiny baby found in the plane's bathroom.

Investigators say a young girl on a school field trip stuffed the fetus in the trash can during the flight from New York to Houston.

The medical examiner says the fetus was to be a baby boy. They can't yet give us his gestational age or say exactly what caused his death. Police say he was stillborn.

After a cleaning crew discovered the fetus on board a Continental airplane at Bush Airport Sunday, police located a 14-year-old girl who they now believe had a miscarriage on board that plane. They say the fetus was stillborn, that it was not viable.

Investigators tell us the eighth grader from Houston was returning home with classmates from a field trip to New York. They say she told them she didn't know she was pregnant.

"We're dealing with a scared child at this point," said Officer Keith Lovelace with the Houston Police Department. "We have a child that was scared."

Police say that girl stuffed the fetus inside a trash can inside the bathroom on board the plane. Police say they've found no signs that the girl induced the miscarriage, so she is not currently charged with any crime. But detectives say their investigation is not yet complete. They will not yet rule out the possibility of charging the teen with some lesser crime for disposing of the fetus.

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