Woman Convicted Of Stealing Baby From Pittsburgh Hospital Dies
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A woman serving time for kidnapping a newborn baby from a Pittsburgh hospital has died.
Officials say 22-year-old Breona Moore died Thursday night.
Moore was sentenced to 30 to 60 months in prison back in June for taking the baby from UPMC Magee-Women's Hospital.
Moore still had several months left in her sentence at the state correctional institution at Muncy. Her attorney got a phone call Friday morning from her confused and grief-stricken family saying she had passed away.
"Our preliminary investigation is that she was in prison, she was sick and they took her to the local hospital and unfortunately that hospital ... I don't believe she was there too long until she passed away," said attorney Blaine Jones. "So I spoke with her mother today. I'm going to be meeting with her mother and other family members within the next day or two and we're going to determine what course we're going to take, whether that's some type of legal action or what we're going to do."
Authorities say Moore died of natural causes while being treated at a Danville hospital.
According to police, Moore entered Wanda King's hospital room in August 2012 wearing newly-purchased hospital scrubs and said she was taking her newborn baby for tests.
Moore put the baby in a zippered bag, left the hospital and boarded a bus heading for Downtown. Friends say she had claimed she was pregnant and now had a 3-day-old baby. The Assistant D.A. said she even put pictures on Facebook showing off her new baby.
Eventually, police tracked her to an office in a building on Fourth Avenue where she had done volunteer work. Officers found her hiding in a closet with the newborn.
At her hearing in June, Moore apologized to the family, saying she kidnapped the newborn from Magee because she just wanted someone to love.
"Breona said 'I don't want to put the mother through that, I know I messed up,'" said Jones. "She owned it the entire time, once she became mentally stable."
Her relatives knew about the mental illness, but they apparently had no knowledge of any physical medical conditions. Her family and her attorney have a lot of questions.
"A 22-year-old shouldn't just be passing away like this," Jones said. "We want to know what's going on."
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