Was murdered pregnant woman targeted by 'womb raiders'?

Greywind's body was found Sunday, wrapped in plastic, floating in the Red River. Photo / Facebook

By Ashley Collman

North Dakota authorities are investigating all theories in the murder of pregnant woman Savanna Greywind - including the possibility that her baby was cut out of her early by so-called 'womb raiders'.

The 22-year-old Fargo woman went missing on August 19, when she went to visit neighbors in her apartment building - William Henry Hoehn, 32, and Brooke Lynn Crews, 38, the Daily Mail reports.

The couple were arrested the following Thursday, when a two-day-old baby, believed to be Greywind's daughter, was found in their apartment.

So far, Hoehn and Crews have been charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, but those charges may be raised now that Greywind's body has been recovered.

Photo / Facebook

Two kayakers found Greywind's body wrapped in plastic, floating in the Red River Sunday evening.

Experts say that it's very possible Greywind was the victim of womb raiders, people who cut babies out of pregnant women to steal them.

While womb raiding is a terrifying scenario, it's also exceptionally rare, at less than 20 cases in the U.S. total.

Infant abduction expert John Rabun, of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told Inforum that typically womb raiders are women who have faked a pregnancy in order to keep a partner from leaving her.

As the fake pregnancy nears full term, the woman finds a victim and performs a forced caesarean section to steal the baby.

Photo / Facebook

"This actually takes some fairly detailed planning," Rabun said. "Usually, the woman who needs the baby will befriend the pregnant woman. She'll play on the common bond of them both being pregnant, even though she really isn't pregnant. She'll gain trust however she can."

But what's different about this case is that the two people arrested in connection to Greywind's disappearance are a man and a woman.

"What's unusual in this case is you have both a man and a woman," said Ann Burgess, a Boston College nursing professor who was a lead researcher in a 2002 study on newborn kidnapping by Caesarean section. "If it turns out to be what we're talking about, it would be unusual because, in most cases, the man is just on the periphery. He isn't part of what's going on until after the fact."

Hoehn and Crews were said to be Greywind's neighbors and it is believed she had gone to their apartment to help them with a sewing project before she disappeared.

During a press conference on Friday, Todd said that investigators discovered a newborn baby girl in the apartment with Crews.

It's believed that the baby is Greywind's child, but authorities are waiting for DNA testing confirmation.

At the time of her disappearance, Greywind was said to be eight months pregnant.
The newborn is being taken care of at a medical facility.

Todd said that Hoehn and Crews were interviewed by detectives at the police station on Thursday and that both suspects were initially cooperative, but when asked about what happened to Greywind, they both asked for lawyers and stopped answering questions.

At that point, Todd said, they were arrested and charged with felony conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

Greywind's body was found on Sunday, wrapped in plastic in a river.

Two kayakers found the body around 8.20pm Sunday in the Red River, between Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota.

The body had been wrapped in plastic and was caught on a tree or log branch in the river.