Woman Arrested, Accused Of Child Neglect

Tulsa County prosecutors charged a woman with abandoning her newborn baby at a hospital. The baby had drugs in his system and had to be put on life support immediately and died days later.

Investigators say Christine Zickefoose never wanted to have a baby and did meth while pregnant.

Investigators say Zickefoose told a social worker she planned to have the baby at home, and then leave it at a fire station. They say she told the social worker she abandoned the baby at the hospital because she didn't want to go to jail.

Deputies and U.S. Marshals arrested Zickefoose this week, five months after investigators say her drug-exposed newborn baby died at the Tulsa hospital. Investigators say Zickefoose started bleeding at home back in May and had to go to the hospital where she had a C-section. They say the newborn had no sign of brain activity and immediately went on life support. They say Zickefoose left the hospital two days later and never came back.

"Through the course of this investigation, one of the social workers had stated, that she stated to them, "I'm not coming back up there because I don't want to go to jail,” said Detective Leighton Boyd with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.

Detective Boyd says a court order removed the baby from the ventilator, and he died at the hospital five days later and had amphetamine, meth and marijuana in his cord blood. Court documents say Zickefoose admitted to a social worker to doing meth while pregnant and said, "That's on me, but that still doesn't matter." Documents say she told the social worker "I'm worried that I will go to jail because of doing drugs while pregnant."

"I tried to make contact with her after I learned of the incident and got it assigned to me, however, I couldn't by any means,” said Boyd.

Detective Boyd says this is a tragic situation and he says it's important he and the other investigators are a voice for children who don't have one.

"The problem is, the people that really want to have kids can't, and the people that can don't want them. By having zero prenatal care, you're already setting yourself up for failure,” said Boyd.

"This could have been avoided entirely. I believe there still would be long-lasting effects of being a drug-addicted child, but a lot of the complications could have been avoided if not all of it."

Zickefoose is now in the Tulsa County jail charged with child neglect. Records show she pled guilty to driving while high on drugs last year and was given probation.