16-year-old Detroit teen, Peyton Peoples, gave birth at home on Thanksgiving Day, completely unaware of her pregnancy until labor suddenly began. In a state of shock and panic, she concealed the truth from her mother, Kira Peoples, who was at a family member’s house, claiming the newborn had been mysteriously abandoned on their porch by a stranger.
Peyton was home alone when the intense labor started. The delivery was astonishingly fast, with her son born in the toilet after just three pushes.
“I was laying in bed and my water broke, so I went into the bathroom and had Paxton,” Peyton told Fox2 Detroit. “I cleaned him off and then looked up on TikTok how to cut my umbilical cord. I cut the cord and then wiped him off again.”
After the terrifying event, Peyton was paralyzed with fear. Overwhelmed, she lied to her mother, falsely claiming she found the newborn abandoned outside their west Detroit home.
“Why my porch? That’s what I kept asking why my porch,” asked Kira.
Believing her daughter’s story, Kira posted it on social media, where it quickly went viral.
However, Detroit police were suspicious when they were called via 911.
According to CBS Detroit, the Detroit Police Department confirmed that it responded to a call concerning a baby found on a porch on Thanksgiving night.
Police responded to a home on Cruse Street near Fenkell Avenue. Police said their child abuse unit was investigating.
They took Peyton to the Children’s Hospital in downtown Detroit to perform tests to determine if she was the mother. Peyton eventually confessed that the baby, little Paxton, was hers.
Kira, a struggling single mother of four, faced severe financial problems after her youngest child, Peyton’s father was shot and killed during a robbery seven months ago. This sudden, violent death meant Kira lost financial support and now has to manage her grief and raise her growing family alone.
“It’s hard. It was already hard for her to raise us, and that just added another burden on her back, and I didn’t want to do that,” Peyton said.
“The baby is always a blessing. It was just that my baby went through this by herself,” Kira said.
A GoFundMe has been established to support Peyton and Paxton.
“We’re going to figure it out. I’m going to keep going to work,” Kira said. “She’s going back to school. I’m going to work midnights, and she’s going to go to school during the day, and we’ll switch off.”
Jeff Abood, an attorney with Abood Law, indicated to CBS Detroit that he anticipates charges will be filed.
“If somebody were to abandon an infant or child, then they could face criminal charges,” Abood told CBS News Detroit.
Michigan’s safe delivery law, enacted in 2001, permits parents to legally and safely surrender a newborn, up to three days old, to any uniformed, on-duty staff member at a hospital, police station, or fire department. Since its implementation, state records indicate that nearly 400 infants have been safely surrendered in Michigan under this law.
“You could do that without any sort of criminal responsibility, assuming it was done properly and done right,” Abood said.
Detroit police have not yet commented on the next steps following these latest developments.
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