TROY — A brown mobile home at 211 North Dixmont Road in Troy was empty and quiet Saturday, a day after Miranda Hopkins, who lived there with her three children, was arrested by Maine State Police and charged with murder in the death of her infant son.
Miranda Hopkins
Hopkins called 911 from her home Thursday morning, saying her 7-week-old son, Jaxson Hopkins, was unresponsive, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said in a news release Friday night. The infant, who was born Nov. 21, was pronounced dead at the scene.
McCausland said an autopsy was conducted by the state medical examiner Thursday, but the cause of death is not being released immediately.
Hopkins, 32, faces a first court appearance Tuesday, McCausland said Saturday.
McCausland said Saturday there would be no more information until the court appearance Tuesday. He would not discuss the cause or manner of the infant’s death.
He said Hopkins was initially taken to the Waldo County Jail in Belfast. She was transferred Saturday to the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset.
Hopkins lived with Jaxson and two other sons, ages 6 and 8. Those boys are now with relatives, McCausland said.
A mail carrier on North Dixmont Road confirmed Saturday that the trailer is the home of Hopkins, but he said he has never spoken to her.
There are no other houses nearby in the heavily wooded area of Troy.
Two cars with snow on them were parked in the yard Saturday at Hopkins’ home. Children’s toys, tools and trash were scattered in the hard snow. Two chickens huddled under a small wood shed, while a black cat roamed the yard, sidling up to a visitor.
The Hopkins case is the second recent incident in central Maine of a mother allegedly killing her infant.
Kayla Stewart, 21, pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to manslaughter in connection with the death of her infant son.
Stewart was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with all but nine years suspended, followed by four years of probation. The two sides had reached an agreement of a maximum sentence of 25 years with a minimum sentence of five years before Justice Robert Murray imposed the sentence at Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan.
State prosecutors say that after Stewart gave birth to the full-term, healthy baby boy, she killed him by either smothering or suffocating him, or by leaving him in a cold, unheated garage to die.
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