A 19-year-old from Nebraska has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after she pleaded guilty to one felony count of removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body. The 19-year-old, identified as Celeste Burgess, made the plea in exchange for other misdemeanor charges being dropped.
Celeste Burgess, 19, is sentenced to jail in Nebraska for illegally aborting her baby at 6 1/2 months, then burning and burying the body pic.twitter.com/VWIPMXAHAo
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) July 21, 2023
According to Blaze Media, police began investigating after receiving reports that Celeste — who was 19 then— had prematurely delivered a stillborn baby. Investigators would later discover that Celeste’s mother, Jessica Burgess, had purchased abortion pills for her.
The 19-year-old then used the abortion pill to terminate the pregnancy, which was around 30 weeks. At the time she took the pill, the pregnancy was already more than a month beyond when unborn children are typically deemed “viable,” or able to live outside the womb.
Further investigations revealed that Celeste and her Mother had disposed of the baby’s remains twice before burning and burying them a third time.
90 DAYS IN JAIL—Celeste Burgess, 18, of Norfolk, Nebraska, aborted her baby at 29 weeks with the help of her mother, Jessica, who ordered abortion pills from India.
Police found online correspondence between Celeste and her mother, with Celeste saying, ‘I can’t wait to get this… pic.twitter.com/WKY9hVsKfR
— Amiri King (@AmiriKing) July 21, 2023
Celeste previously told police that she had unexpectedly given birth to a stillborn child while she was in the shower. She added that she and her mother then buried the child with the help of another man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOP1cdEWTUQ
The man told police in an interview that Celeste and her mother burned the child. When police exhumed the baby’s body, they discovered it had severe burns.
Police also discovered Facebook messages between Celeste and her mother where they hatched the plan to get rid of the baby. In one message, Celeste referred to the baby as a “thing.”
At the time Celeste terminated her pregnancy, abortion was illegal in Nebraska after 20 weeks of gestation.
Celeste pleaded guilty to one felony count of removing, concealing or abandoning a dead human body in May and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. The presiding judge also handed her two years of probation.
Celeste’s mother pleaded guilty to providing an illegal abortion, tampering with human skeletal remains and false reporting. Prosecutors dropped charges of concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician in return for her plea. Jessica will be sentenced on Sept. 22.
