A Highlands Ranch woman was sentenced to 40 years in prison this week for killing her newborn baby in 2020. The body was found in a grocery store bag underneath a bathroom sink in her home.
Peyton M. Green, 22, pleaded guilty to child abuse that knowingly and recklessly caused death on Thursday, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Green sought medical treatment at the UCHealth Highlands Ranch emergency room on Sept. 26, 2020, for vaginal bleeding. After an exam, hospital staff determined she had given birth, though Green denied being pregnant or ever having sex.
Douglas County sheriff’s deputies searched Green’s home with her parent’s permission and found a baby’s lifeless body inside a tan grocery store bag underneath a towel in the cabinets below a bathroom sink.
An autopsy and coroner’s report showed the baby was born during a live birth, according to the district attorney’s office.
Investigators also determined Green had told her ex-boyfriend and a friend she was pregnant, according to the district attorney’s office.
After a year-long investigation, Green was booked into the Douglas County Jail on Oct. 5, 2021, on suspicion of first-degree murder, tampering with a body and attempting to influence a public servant.
“Had this mother told the truth about her pregnancy or called for help after giving birth, this tragedy may have been avoided,” District Attorney John Kellner said in a statement. “There were multiple ways to handle an unwanted or unexpected pregnancy, but her selfish and deceitful actions to hide a birth by dumping her newborn’s body in a bag like a piece of trash certainly warrants a lengthy prison sentence.”
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