Woman accused of slaying pregnant woman, fetus

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. -- A woman was charged Saturday in the deaths of a pregnant acquaintance and the fetus authorities believe she cut from the dead woman's womb after knocking the victim unconscious.

Charges against 24-year-old Tiffany Hall came as authorities continued to search for the dead woman's three children, who authorities say were last seen with Hall on Monday, three days before she was taken into custody.

St. Clair County State's Attorney Robert Haida said Hall faces one count apiece of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child in the death of 23-year-old Jimella Tunstall, who relatives say grew up with Hall and has let Hall baby-sit her now-missing children, ages 7, 2 and 1.

Hall is being held in lieu of $5 million bail in the St. Clair County Jail in Belleville.

An autopsy Friday showed that Tunstall bled to death after sustaining an abdominal wound caused by a sharp object, and "we're thinking it's scissors" found near the body, said Ace Hart, a deputy St. Clair County coroner.

In charging Hall, authorities apparently believe they can prove Tunstall was the fetus' mother, though DNA testing that could make the connection definitively remains pending, Hart said Saturday after the charges were announced.

Hall surfaced as what investigators called "a person of interest" in Tunstall's death Thursday, when during a funeral for a baby girl she claimed was hers she told her boyfriend the baby wasn't his and that she had killed a woman and taken her baby, Police Chief James Mister said.

The boyfriend told police, who found Tunstall's body and arrested Hall late Thursday.

The woman's first run-in with police in the matter came Sept. 15, when she called police from the 1,100-acre Frank Holten State Park here that she had gone into labor, Hart said. The dead baby, taken to a hospital, showed no trauma, and an autopsy failed to pinpoint a cause of death, Hart said.

The woman would not let doctors at the hospital examine her and offered conflicting reasons for why she went into labor, alternately saying she had consensual sex and was raped, Hart said.

Saturday's charges were unveiled hours after authorities again searched the thickly weeded lot where Tunstall's body was found, hoping to uncover any previously overlooked evidence in Tunstall's death and clues to the whereabouts of her kids.

"We have no evidence that leads us to believe they're dead," he said, adding two or three additional sites will be searched in and around East St. Louis on Sunday.

"These children are from East St. Louis. They know how to survive," said Mister.

Koehler and Mister refused to publicly discuss the evidence or possible statements Hall has made to investigators.

Messages were left Saturday with Haida, seeking comment on such matters as when Hall's arraignment may be held and whether she had an attorney.

A search Friday of Frank Holten park, just blocks from where Tunstall was found dead, failed to find Tunstall's children in woods or the park's two lakes.

The baby was buried Thursday as Taylor Horn after a funeral arranged by L. King Funeral Chapel, where president Levi King said the 26-year-old claiming to be the mother -- the woman authorities believe was Hall -- called minutes after the service was to start, asking if she could reschedule for a different day so more relatives could attend. At the time, King said, only two relatives were there.

The woman showed up two hours late, ultimately signing an affidavit for the funeral home stating that the child was hers, King said.

The East St. Louis case is the second recent case in the St. Louis area involving babies.

Shannon Torrez, 36, of Lonedell, Mo. -- south of St. Louis, about an hour's drive from here -- is accused of slashing a young mother's throat and kidnapping her baby on Sept. 15. The baby was returned unharmed Tuesday, the same day Torrez was arrested.

Also in Missouri, Lisa Montgomery awaits trial in the abduction of an unborn girl taken from the womb of Bobbie Jo Stinnett at her Skidmore, Mo., home in December 2004. The baby survived.