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Former Appalachian State Student Victim of ‘Fetal Abduction’ Attack in Longmont, Colo.

By Jesse Wood

A former Appalachian State University student was the victim of a horrific attack in Longmont, Colo., on Wednesday that authorities are calling the “first apparent fetal abduction in the state,” according to the Longmont Times-Call.

This photo from Wilkins' Facebook profile has been circulated by numerous media outlets.
This photo from Wilkins’ Facebook profile has been circulated by numerous media outlets.

A pregnant Michelle Wilkins, 26, who studied Sustainable Development at ASU was knifed in the stomach – with her unborn child removed – after responding to a Craigslist ad to buy baby clothes, according to a Longmont Police Department incident report.

Officers arrived to the suspects home after Wilkins called 911 and found Wilkins fading in and out of consciousness, barely able to speak.

“[The officers] walked down into the basement area and noted a large amount of blood on the floor and what appeared to be a trail of blood leading from the northeast bedroom into a utility room,” the police report states. “Continuing into the bedroom officers found [Wilkins] lying on a bed with a large amount of blood on her and around her on the bed. On the floor and just under the bed [Wilkins] was lying on, officers noted a small knife with a three-inch blade.”

The Longmont Times-Call said that Dynel Catrece Lane, 34, of Longmont, was “arrested on suspicion of first-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and child abuse knowingly and recklessly resulting in death.”

She is being held on $2 million bond.

An injured Wilkins was taken from Lane’s home, where she went to purchase baby clothes, to Longmont United Hospital. Her family released a statement to the media saying that she was in critical but stable condition and asked for privacy “in this time of unimaginable sorrow,” according to the newspaper.

Meanwhile Lane and her husband, David Ridley, went to the emergency room in the same hospital with the 7-month-old fetus. Lane reported told Ridley, who wasn’t home during the attack, that she had a miscarriage and claimed the same to hospital staff. Ridley currently hasn’t been charge with anything.

The police report noted that Lane didn’t show the signs of having recently given birth and that Lane eventually admitted to detectives that she cut Wilkin’s abdomen open to remove the fetus.

See Longmont Times-Call coverage of this attack here.