FORT DODGE, Iowa — EDITOR'S NOTE: This story contains descriptions of a crime that may be disturbing to some.
A Fort Dodge woman charged in the November 2022 drowning death of her newborn has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, earning her decades in prison.
Taylor Blaha formally entered the plea deal on Friday and was sentenced to 50 years in prison with a 35-year mandatory minimum before being eligible for parole, court documents show. The baby's father, Brandon Thoma, pleaded guilty to amended charges back in July 2023. Both parents were arrested in December 2022, just weeks after the crime.
According to a police affidavit, Blaha gave birth in a bathroom on Nov. 16, 2022, but she and Thoma did not plan on keeping the baby. Blaha told police her sister was going to adopt the baby, but when the newborn started crying, they panicked.
That's when investigators said they drowned the baby in the bathtub. Thoma later admitted to police he took the baby out of the apartment in a backpack, removed the baby from the backpack and returned to the apartment without the baby, according to charging documents.
Police searched the area Thoma said he left the baby, but they never found a body.
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