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Teen Mom Planned to Go to IHOP After Killing Her Newborn, Prosecutors Say

By Gwynne Hogan | July 31, 2015 7:37pm
 The body of a baby was found in the bag of a teenage girl suspected of shoplifting from Victoria's Secret in Herald Square, according to police sources.
The body of a baby was found in the bag of a teenage girl suspected of shoplifting from Victoria's Secret in Herald Square, according to police sources.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg and Facebook/tiona.rodriguez

MANHATTAN — The teenager caught with the day-old body of her dead new-born in a bag in Midtown, plotted to eat at IHOP after she killed the baby and disposed of his corpse, prosecutors said Thursday.

Tiona Rodriguez, 18, had hidden three pregnancies from her family dating back to 2011 when she was 14-years-old and may have killed another of her babies in 2012, according to the Manhattan District Attorney.

Rodriguez was indicted Thursday for the murder of her 8-pound baby boy, who prosecutors said lived for several minutes before he was asphyxiated on Oct. 16, 2013.

A day later, Rodriguez and Francis Estevez, 17, a guard at Victoria Secret at 1328 Broadway in Herald Square stopped the two on suspicion of shoplifting.

The guard searched Rodriguez’s bag which had a strong odor, and found the body of a male baby, police said.

The medical examiner’s office officially ruled the boy’s death a homicide last year.

Rodriguez's first son, who she kept a secret from her family until she gave birth in a hospital, lives with her grandparents, prosecutors said.

In 2012, she gave birth a second time in her own bathtub in Brooklyn, prosecutors said.

“We know that she texted her boyfriend throughout the birth, ultimately telling him – it’s dead," lead prosecutor Rachel Ferrari told the judge on Thursday. “Then the two of them discussed via text getting rid of it. Smashing it up, so it didn’t look like a body. Burning it. Meeting up to bury it. That was her second pregnancy.”

Rodriguez was held without bail and has her next court date on Oct. 6, according to records.