NJ Mother Accused Of Killing Son Has 'Severe Postpartum': Report

BRIDGETON, NJ - The South Jersey woman accused of killing her 23-month-old son will reportedly remain in jail until her trial.

Nakira M. Griner, 24, of Bridgeton, missed her court appearance on Tuesday because she’s suffering from a severe form of postpartum depression, The Associated Press reports. She has been detained in Cumberland County Jail since her arrest earlier this month.

She is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her son, Daniel. Police say she killed her son because he wouldn't eat or listen to her. Authorities said that when the child didn't behave, she hit him so hard that it left bruises on his face, and he fell down the steps.

After hitting him on Friday, Feb. 8, she put him in a stroller and left him alone, according to NBC 4 New York. The following morning, police found the remains of the boy in trash bags under a shed in the backyard of his mother's home on Woodland Drive in Bridgeton, according to nj.com. They also found the burned remains of what appeared to be a child in his mother's purse.

Griner was then charged with murder, hours after she told police that her son had been abducted, according to the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office.

She initially told police she had been walking her son in a stroller when she was attacked by a stranger according to The Asbury Park Press. Griner said her assailant kicked her, and she fell to the ground as the attacker continued to kick her in the head, according to nj.com. When she looked up, the stroller and Daniel were gone, she told police.

Police ultimately found the stroller, containing only a pair of red sneakers, a few blocks away from the alleged attack scene on Devonshire Place, according to nj.com. She allegedly said Daniel "liked going with strangers" but she did not remember if she heard him screaming during the attack, according to the report.

However, police were unable to find any surveillance footage of the incident, and Griner failed a polygraph test that she agreed to take. In addition to the murder charge, Griner has been charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, second-degree desecration of human remains, and fourth-degree tampering with evidence.

See related: NJ Mother Killed Her Child, Left Remains In Yard: Cops

Images via Bridgeton police.