A US teenager who allegedly dumped her newborn in a hospital bin has been pictured smiling at her school formal just three months after the harrowing incident.
Alexee Trevizo, 19, was charged in May with first-degree murder, or alternatively abusing a child resulting in death, and tampering with evidence after secretly delivering a baby boy in the bathroom at Artesia General Hospital in New Mexico on January 27.
Just three months later, she was pictured beaming at her end of school party, wearing a tan mini dress and white sneakers alongside her longtime boyfriend, Devyn Fierro, photos obtained by The Daily Mail show.
Melody Smith, the photographer who captured the evening, said “you would never have known” about the recent tragedy.
“She was holding her boyfriend’s arm, it was big smiles. They were excited to be at prom,” she told the outlet.
“I had no idea about [the baby] at the time but when I looked back on the photos, I remembered her because I remember how unusual I thought it was that she wore such a short dress.”
“It wasn’t until after and then there was some retaliation about the fact she had been allowed to attend that I realised what had happened.”
The Artesia High School student, who was admitted into hospital with back pain, aroused suspicion when she locked herself in the hospital bathroom for “quite a while”, The New York Post reports.
Body camera footage, which was released from the night of the birth, revealed doctors and nurses eventually opened the toilet door and discovered bloody scene, which prompted concerns that she had “done something to herself” in an effort to terminate her pregnancy.
Eventually one of the nurses discovered a dead, full-term baby in the rubbish bin.
“He had hair and, um, he was like purple-ish. He wasn’t bruised or nothing like that. He was purple, pink-like skin colour,” a hospital cleaner can be seen telling police in the footage.
“I noticed the umbilical cord looked like an animal had torn it apart,” one nurse, Lori, added.
“It caught my eye and I was like, ‘God, this chick really ripped this thing apart’ because those things are hard to cut.”
The high school cheerleader had previously denied ever having sex, despite positive pregnancy test results, a doctor can be heard telling police in the footage.
“She put the baby in the trash can and then another clean liner over the top of it,” the doctor said.
“The baby is dead…She killed the kid.”
“She had it in the bathroom is what happened and then whatever she did, I don’t know — she’s going to lie.”
Trevizo later admitted giving birth and dumping the baby after being questioned in her hospital bed, the police bodycam video showed.
“I’m sorry. It came out of me and I didn’t know what to do,” the teen told the doctor and her mother, Rosa Rodriguez.
“Lexee, I told you about this! I just asked you, baby, to tell me the truth!” Rodriguez responded.
“Lexee, have you watched the news about what the girls do to their babies and they go to jail?”
Trevizo initially maintained that the infant was stillborn, but the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator eventually ruled the death a homicide.
A few hours after the incident, Fierro admitted to being the deceased baby’s father – but did not mention whether he previously knew his girlfriend was pregnant.
“She said her hips were hurting bad. I asked if anything else was hurting and she said, ‘Just everything.’ And she went to sleep,” he told police of her troubling symptoms.
After she was arrested and booked on May 10, Trevizo was released and permitted to finish the school year without an ankle monitor or house arrest while she awaits trial.
She was permitted to graduate, but did not attend the ceremony with her peers, The Daily Mail said.
Trevizo’s jury trial is set for October 2, 2023.
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reproduced here with permission