The mother of a baby whose remains were found last week in a garage on Norridgewock Road in Fairfield has been arrested and charged with murder.

Kayla Stewart, 20, of 457 Norridgewock Road in Fairfield was arrested without incident Friday afternoon and taken to the Somerset County Jail in East Madison, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

Stewart’s first court appearance is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday in Skowhegan.

“She is charged in the death of her infant son, whose body was found in the detached garage of her mobile home on Jan. 11,” McCausland said in a news release Friday evening. “Her longtime boyfriend, Nicholas Blood, continues to live at the mobile home and their 3-year-old daughter is staying with relatives elsewhere.”

Contacted after the news release was issued, McCausland said no details are being released about the cause of death.

“Investigation continues as we sort through evidence, consult with the Medical Examiner’s Office and continue to work with the Attorney General’s Office,” he said.

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Contacted Friday night via Facebook, Stewart’s mother, Lucie Johnston Stewart, said she did not have a comment.

“Very sad time,” was all she wrote.

At the mobile home on Norridgewock Road just after 7 p.m. Friday, no one answered the door, although the same two cars police searched there last week were parked in the snowy driveway.

Green Christmas lights strung across the porch glistened in the dark. A dim light appeared to be on in the mobile home, where snowflakes cut out of white paper hung in a bow window just feet from the garage where the dead baby was discovered.

Friday’s arrest occurred 10 days after state police discovered the remains of the full-term baby boy in the garage next to the home on Norridgewock Road, which is Route 139. The state Medical Examiner’s Office examined the remains last week.

Detectives were called to the home Jan. 10 and spent three days searching the house, garage and two cars parked there.

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McCausland would not say at the time why police were called to the home but said Stewart and Blood, who is 25, were interviewed and were cooperating with police.

The first information in the case was released Jan. 12 when McCausland reported police were investigating the “remains from a recent pregnancy” that they discovered in the garage. He would not say whether the remains were that of a fetus or a full-term pregnancy. Police have not said how long the remains appear to have been there.

On Jan. 13, McCausland reported the remains were that of a full-term baby boy. The next day, he said occupancy of the home was returned to Stewart and Blood the evening of Jan. 13.

 


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