Young Woman on 'Dream' Cruise Left Her Newborn There to Die

An Indiana woman celebrating a friend’s birthday cruise on the Caribbean gave birth to a baby girl, wrapped the newborn in a towel and left her to die under the bed in her stateroom.

Three and a half years later, Alicia Keir faces as many as eight years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in federal court.

Keir, 24, of DeMotte, IN, trembled before the judge on Wednesday.

“She did not move. She did not make a sound,” Keir told the court, saying she spent about a minute with the healthy newborn before putting her under the bed.

On Oct. 10, 2011, Keir was aboard the Carnival Dream ship on the high seas, and after giving birth alone in her stateroom she failed to obtain any medical attention. The child died from exposure and lack of care, according to federal prosecutors. Her friends did not know she’d given birth. They didn’t even know she was pregnant. Keir kept her pregnancy a secret.

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When the ship arrived in St. Maarten on Oct. 12, a room steward found the dead baby while cleaning Keir’s cabin. An FBI agent was flown in to investigate. Meanwhile, Keir flew back home to northwest Indiana. An autopsy was performed by a Dutch coroner in St. Maarten.

“I should have gotten help,” Keir said, according to a report in the Times of Northwest Indiana.

Charges were pressed in Indiana because jurisdiction for acts on the high seas can be in the district where a defendant resides. She will be sentenced on Aug. 20.

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