Christopher Fitzpatrick, 20, is accused of beating his newborn daughter to death with a cinder block in woodland near where he worked in Pennsylvania
Christopher Fitzpatrick, 20, allegedly told his girlfriend, Jennifer Barrise, ‘I just want to get rid of it’ as she started having contractions while they were out shopping near their home in Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania.
Both have now been charged with criminal homicide after police found their daughter’s tiny body buried in woodland near Fitzpatrick’s workplace.
Barrise, 28, already has five little boys, all aged under nine. The youngest, Christopher - her first child with Fitzpatrick – was born just a year ago in Franklin, New Jersey, where the couple used to live.
Now the couple are both being held at Wayne County Jail on murder charges. Police claim Barrise knew Fitzpatrick planned to kill their baby.
According to an arrest affidavit both have admitted the charges.
The alleged killing happened on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, just hours after Barrise went into labor when the couple was at a grocery store with Fitzpatrick’s 11-year-old sister.
According to police, as her contractions began the 20-year-old yelled at his girlfriend: ‘Have this (expletive) baby. I just want to get rid of it. I gotta do what I gotta do.’
She said: ‘What do you want to do, kill it?’, but Fitzpatrick didn’t reply. Their car wouldn’t start, but as they waited for help he allegedly said: ‘hurry up and have this baby, I want to get rid of it.’
Barrise again asked if he was going to kill the baby, but he stayed silent, police say.
When Barrise had the baby, the little girl landed on the floor – and neither of her parents touched her as she lay crying, the affidavit claims.
According to police, Fitzpatrick drove his girlfriend, daughter and sister back to their home, but later picked up the baby and drove to M n D Lawn Care, where he worked.
There he allegedly picked up a cinder block and dropped it twice on his daughter’s head, smashing her skull.
Then he buried her tiny body beneath the concrete block and drove home.
The birth only came to light the next day, when Fitzpatrick’s sister told her family Barrise had had the baby in her brother’s car.
Her parents immediately rang Fitzpatrick, and he initially told them he had taken his daughter to a hospital, but he couldn’t remember the name.
His family called every hospital within a two-hour drive, but couldn’t track the baby down – so they confronted Fitzpatrick.
He allegedly told his uncle he had taken the baby into the woods and buried her there.
His mother later testified Fitzpatrick had once told her he and Barrise didn’t have enough money to look after another baby.
Soon afterwards state troopers went to the lawn company to search the grounds. When Fitzpatrick arrived he allegedly showed officers where he had buried the little girl, and confessed to the murder.
Shocked residents are to hold a memorial service for the little girl at the lawn company next weekend. Its owner, Ruth DiPalma, has already built a cross in her memory.
She told the Times-Tribune: ‘This was not the person we hired. It’s a different person. I can’t tell you how horrified and completely devastated we are. We had absolutely no idea.’
Barrise’s five sons, aged one, two, four, five and nine, are being looked after by relatives.
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