http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/
A 27-year-old Washington County woman has been accused of killing a pregnant woman who was found dead Friday afternoon in the crawl space of a Cedar Hills home. The newborn boy also died.
Korena Elaine Roberts was arrested in the death of Heather Megan Snively, 21, who recently moved to the Tigard area from Maryland. Roberts could face charges in the baby's death as well, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff's deputies say Roberts pretended to have just given birth to the baby boy when she and her live-in boyfriend called 9-1-1 at 2:42 p.m. to report that the baby was not breathing. The boyfriend performed CPR with the help of dispatchers.
Rescuers noted a lot of blood in the house, at 13380 N.W. Mill Creek Drive, and sent the baby and Roberts to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. Doctors could not revive the baby and discovered that Roberts had not recently delivered a baby, according to the sheriff's office.
Deputies were called to the hospital about 4:37 p.m., where they learned that an injured person might be at the Mill Creek Drive house.
They then searched the home and found Snively dead. and determined she died of homicidal violence. Roberts was arrested at 5:45 p.m. and is being held without bail at the Washington County jail.
Sgt. David Thompson, a sheriff's office spokesman, said it is too early in the investigation to reveal a possible motive or the relationship between Roberts and Snively.
Autopsies of the mother and the baby, scheduled for today, are expected to determine how the baby was delivered and whether he was alive outside his mother's body before he died.
The Washington County district attorney's office is researching when the baby could be legally considered a person, Thompson said.
"If we can determine that the baby by legal definition was alive, then (Roberts) faces legal charges for that death as well," he said.
Snively's boyfriend, who is the father of the baby, reported that she was missing about 11 p.m. because it was unusual for her not to come home by that time, Thompson said. The boyfriend, who lived with Snively in Tigard, said she was in her third trimester of pregnancy. Thompson said he does not think Snively had any other children.
Roberts has two children, a boy and a girl under age 10, who are staying with relatives. They were not home at the time of the killing, Thompson said.
Roberts' boyfriend, whose name has not been released, is a witness who is cooperating with authorities, Thompson said.
"Right now it doesn't appear that he was involved," he said. "This is an investigation we're still very much in the middle of, so things can change."
The neighborhood just off U.S. 26 in unincorporated Washington County finally began to calm down as the sun began to sink Saturday. Police pulled down the yellow tape from around the blue single-story house, then left. The TV crews pulled one more piece of video, interviewed one more neighbor. Then Mill Creek Drive fell quiet.
But it was not the same place anymore. "It's such a shame," said Jim Carney, 56, a 19-year resident of the neighborhood. "I don't think anything bad has happened here for six, seven years," he said. "You just don't know your neighbors."
Carney said he had met Roberts once or twice at garage sales, and he said he often saw two children playing in the front yard of the house. Saturday night, a tiny inflatable children's pool lay dry on the lawn. Four cars, all older imports, were parked in the driveway and in front of the house.
"Those are all theirs," said Terry King, 61, who lives next door to Roberts. King and his son Doug, 28, said Roberts is the mother of a girl about 10 and a boy about 5. King said that about a week ago, Roberts told his wife, Bridget, that she was pregnant and due in a month or so. King said he believed it was possible because Roberts was large enough to conceal a pregnancy, "to five or six months."
Roberts "seemed normal enough, " Terry King said. "I thought she was a little thick but not crazy."
Before police descended on Mill Creek Drive, the Kings said, the neighborhood was unusually quiet.
"There was no people over here. Normally, the kids are out playing in the yard."
Then, "a crush" of cops arrived about 4 p.m. Friday and by Saturday morning, traffic was so tight with vehicles that the sheriff's deputies had to help King get his car out.
-- Anne Saker and Christine DiGangi of The Oregonian contributed to this report.
