National

Teen secretly gives birth, kills newborn in bedroom, NE cops say. She gets prison

An 18-year-old accused of killing her newborn baby was sentenced to prison, Nebraska prosecutors said.
An 18-year-old accused of killing her newborn baby was sentenced to prison, Nebraska prosecutors said. Getty Images/iStockphoto

A 16-year-old accused of secretly giving birth in her bedroom, then killing her newborn, will spend decades behind bars, Nebraska prosecutors said.

The now-18-year-old Chloe Coplen-Anderson was sentenced to 35 to 60 years in prison on April 24, according to the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.

The night of Nov. 6, 2023, Coplen-Anderson delivered her child in her room in Gordon without her parents knowing, according to prosecutors and the Lincoln Journal-Star.

She then went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and killed the newborn, prosecutors said.

That night, police were called to the home, where they were met by the girl’s father, who told police the child was a stillborn, according to court records reported by the Journal-Star.

An officer then went into a bedroom and found a teen holding the newborn wrapped in a towel, KOLN reported. According to court documents, the infant had multiple stab wounds, the outlet reported.

Coplen-Anderson pleaded no contest to murder in August, according to KOLN, in a deal where prosecutors dropped two charges.

Gordon is about a 400-mile drive northwest from Lincoln.

Read Next
Read Next
Read Next
Kate Linderman
mcclatchy-newsroom
Kate Linderman covers national news for McClatchy’s real-time team. She reports on politics and crime and courts news in the Midwest. Kate is a 2023 graduate of DePaul University and is based in Chicago.
Get unlimited digital access
#ReadLocal

Try 1 month for $1

CLAIM OFFER